Taiwan president protests to China over WHO name row

May 10, 2011, 8:35 GMT

Taipei - Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou on Tuesday protested to China over what Taipei said was Beijing's forcing of the World Health Organization (WHO) to define the island as a Chinese province.

Ma said the WHO officially calls Taiwan 'Chinese-Taipei' but in its international documents defines Taiwan as a province of China.

'This is unfair, unreasonable and double-dealing,' he said at a meeting of Taiwan businessmen. 'We will lodge a strong protest with mainland China.'

Ma, who has ushered in a blossoming of ties with China since his 2008 election, said the WHO's downgrading of Taiwan's status would affect Taiwan-China ties if Beijing continues to isolate Taipei in the international arena.

Ma's protest came a day after a lawmaker told parliament that a 2010 WHO internal document referred to Taiwan as 'the Taiwan province of China' because China signed a secret memorandum of understanding with WHO in 2005 requiring WHO to define Taiwan as a Chinese province.

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