Radio Free Asia (RFA)
Date: 2020-02-07

The democratic island of Taiwan has called on China to prioritize the most vulnerable of its nationals when arranging their evacuation from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, which is at the center of the coronavirus epidemic.

President Tsai Ing-wen said Chinese officials had excluded some of its most vulnerable nationals from the first evacuation flight to leave Wuhan since the outbreak left the city paralyzed last month.

She also hit out at China's insistence that the World Health Organization (WHO) refer to Taiwan, which has never been part of the People's Republic of China, nor been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, as "Taipei and environs."

"We in Taiwan are on the front line of epidemic prevention and deserve the respect of the international community," Tsai said. "In particular, our participation in the WHO is the key to a very important network for international epidemic prevention work."    [FULL  STORY]