Denmark’s parliament first Taiwan issue into the resolution that Taiwan’s epidemic prevention success should be included in the WHO

The Blue Front, a group of Danish conservative parties, and the Social Liberal Party have proposed in parliament to support Taiwan‘s return to the World health Organization (WHO), and the Danish parliament debated the proposal on Thursday (14).

The Danish broadsheet Jyllands-Posten reported that the important factor for Danish opposition MPs to sign up to support Taiwan’s rejoining the WHO is the success of Taiwan’s experience in containing the new crown pneumonia.

The Danish authorities have not made a formal statement on the motion, but the report said Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said Denmark “respects the one-China policy, but supports Taiwan’s rejoining the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer.”

The report quoted Andreas B. Forsby, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen and an expert on China, as saying, “Democratic Taiwan strikes at the heart of China’s interests.” Beijing has forcibly classified Taiwan as part of China, demanding that the world follow the one-China principle and exclude Taiwan from the international community. Denmark could take a page from the U.S. and strengthen relations between Denmark and Taiwan through mutual visits and exchanges of officials.

“Michael Aastrup Jensen, foreign affairs spokesman for the largest party in the Blue Front, the Liberal Party, and chairman of the Parliamentary Group for Friendship with Taiwan, said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten that “it is regrettable that Taiwan has been excluded from the WHO and has not been able to share its successful experience in epidemic prevention,” while Martin Lidegaard, foreign affairs spokesman for the Social Liberal Party, said that Taiwan had performed well in epidemic prevention and did not understand why it could not participate in the WHO as it had in the past.

In December 2020, the Danish Parliament discussed the issue of the Hong Kong National Security Law and adopted a statement criticizing China’s human rights issues, “stating that Hong Kong’s one country, two systems no longer exists and calling on the Danish government to join other countries in criticizing China’s human rights issues, especially those in Hong Kong.”