Ghebreyesus, in a press conference, spoke about the abuse with racial slurs that he has been subjected to since the coronavirus crisis began.
Taipei| Taiwan has demanded an apology on Tuesday from the World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus after he accused the government of the island of attacking him and his agency’s response on the coronavirus pandemic.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made a call for unity on Wednesday to fight the spread of the deadly virus after the US President Donald Trump came down heavily on the global health agency and threatened to cut its funding.
Ghebreyesus, in a press conference, spoke about the abuse with racial slurs that he has been subjected to since the coronavirus crisis began.
Though he avoided mentioning Donald Trump, he called out the Taiwan government, which has been frozen-out from the WHO after the alleged political pressure from China.
“Three months ago, this attack came from Taiwan,” he said in a press address in Geneva.
“They didn’t disassociate themselves. They even started criticising me in the middle of all that insult and slur, but I didn’t care,” Ghebreyesus said.
The comments by WHO chief angered Taiwanese nationals, with the government rejecting Ghebreyesus’s claims as “baseless”.
“Our country has never encouraged the public to launch personal attacks against him or made any racially discriminatory comments,” Joanne Ou, the foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.
“Our government demands an immediate clarification and an apology from director-general Tedros over such extremely irresponsible act of slander,” she further added.
Though the health experts have lauded Taiwan’s efforts in the handling of the coronavirus outbreak, its relations with the WHO have considerably worsened after the crisis began.
Diplomatic pressure from Beijing in last couple of years has pushed Taiwan out of the international health body WHO.
Earlier, Taiwan used to obtain observer status at the WHO’s annual assembly.
Taiwan has so far reported only 379 confirmed Covid-19 and 5 deaths despite its proximity with China.
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