Taiwan will attend under the name Chinese Taipei, as it does in the WTO and APEC and other bodies such as the Olympics. As President Ma has said, it will not alter Taiwan’s sovereignty status. Chinese Taipei has largely ceased to be a controversial title, finessed by the PRC and Taiwan by using different Chinese translations for the term Chinese; that used by Taiwan has a cultural or ethnic meaning, not a political one, as the mainland’s term has. It is a clear step forward by China from earlier suggestions of Taiwan’s international participation in international events as part of a Chinese delegation.

This will be seen by President Ma as a positive product of his efforts to ease cross strait relations and the warmer, if still limited, relations that have developed between the two governments. This development has been welcomed internationally, including by the US, but whether it will lead to further participation by Taiwan in international bodies (including the UN) or indeed could be seen as foreshadowing regular Taiwanese participation remains to be seen.

The case for participation in a basically technical meeting on health issues gives WHO participation a special logic, but much will depend on how the experience plays out and on how cross strait relations develop.

One interesting twist, noted by DPP critics in Taiwan, is that it seems that the first public announcement of the decision was made by China’s Health Ministry.