Newly elected World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom on Friday reaffirmed the one-China principle.
Tedros told Xinhua that he would abide by the one-China principle as enshrined in the related UN General Assembly resolution and World Health Assembly resolution when handling issues in the WHO which are related to China's Taiwan.
During a meeting with Chinese Health Minister Li Bin on Wednesday, Tedros said the UN agency will properly handle the Taiwan-related issues based on the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the World Health Assembly, the WHO's decision-making body.
The WHO plenary on Monday rejected a proposal to discuss the invitation of China's Taiwan to the WHO's annual assembly.
Prior to this year's assembly, Li told a press conference in Geneva that from 2009 to 2016, the Chinese government made special arrangements for Taiwan to attend the WHO assembly as an observer in the name of "Chinese Taipei," in accordance with the "1992 Consensus" reached between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
However, Taiwan's current ruling Democratic Progressive Party has refused to recognize the one-China principle, thus undermining the political basis of Taiwan's participation in the WHO's annual conference.
The WHO is a UN specialized agency. UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 and World Health Assembly Resolution 25.1 provide the legal basis for the WHO to follow the one-China principle.
During the press conference, Li also noted that proper arrangements have been made for Taiwan to participate in global health affairs and to conduct exchanges on epidemics and other health issues with WHO medical and public health experts, thus the so-called "epidemic prevention gap" doesn't exist at all.
Tedros, 52, a former health minister and foreign minister of Ethiopia, was elected on Tuesday as new WHO director-general at the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva. He will succeed Margaret Chan, whose tenure ends in June. （Updated）
