Warming China-Taiwan Ties Get Taiwan a Pass to the World Health Assembly

Taiwan has been pushing for an invitation every year since 1997, only to have their application be repeatedly blocked by China, which sees the democratic island as a Chinese province and therefore ineligible to participate alongside other sovereign states. "It's an inevitable development," says Political Scientist Yang Tai-shuenn of Taipei's Chinese Culture University. "The pressure from the international community has been accumulating. Health is a universal value China cannot continue to reject."