Should individual countries interest supersede the goals and the interest of the whole world
Reading Text: Politics of coronavirus: Taiwan, China and WHO
The quote that I chose from the text is the tweet by the Taiwanese foreign affairs ministry twitter page. “@WHO, what’s wrong with you? First you called us “Taiwan, China,” then you changed to “Taipei.” You misreported the confirmed cases, & now you call us “Taipei & Environs.” Look! Taiwan is #Taiwan & not any part of the #PRC. JW” (Hale, 2020, p. par 4).The quote is important to me because it shows the growing conflict of interests between the World Health Organization and China (Hale, 2020). As such, it helped me generate a question due to the critical role of the WHO and Taiwan’s response to the Coronavirus crisis.
The text by Eric Hale (2020) on the Aljazeera News website is a breakdown of the conflict of interest between WHO and China. This text lays bare the dilemma facing the world health organization. The institution tasked with protecting the world from infections must fight the challenge of combatting the Corona Virus using knowledge gained from Taiwan or ignoring Taiwan and following China, which is the second largest of its contributors (Hale, 2020). Thus, raising the question of whether an individual nation’s interest must come before that of the whole world.
The question is crucial because it puts to task the role the WHO plays as a protector of the world from a dangerous disease. By siding with China, WHO shows the world that the interest of the individual states comes before the common good interest of other nations and the world at large. Thus, refusing cooperation with Taiwan places the word at risk in a bid to fulfill china’s desires rather than the world’s desire. The question also tasks the role of WHO as a mediator between two conflicting sides.
Reference
Hale, E. (2020). Politics of coronavirus: Taiwan, China, and WHO. Retrieved from Aljazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/politics-coronavirus-taiwan-china-200205080601495.html