The Chinese government, which failed to control the initial outbreak of the virus and is widely suspected of having misled the World Health Organization and the global community about both the origins of the virus and the scope of its early spread, is now preventing Taiwan from participating in WHO meetings and explaining its success at containing the virus, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, Taiwan has not had a locally transmitted coronavirus infection in seven months. Taiwan has sought to participate in World Health Organization meetings about the pandemic to discuss measures the island nation — which China considers to be a rogue province — has taken to successfully combat the spread of COVID. However, due to China’s influence at the World Health Organization, which has frequently been criticized by President Trump and other Republicans, Taiwan has been prevented from participating.

In addition to their objections regarding any recognition of Taiwan’s independence, the communist Chinese regime has a propaganda-related motive for restricting Taiwan’s participation in these meetings. Since the start of the pandemic, China has waged a public relations campaign designed to convince the world that their authoritarian form of government has been more efficient at containing the virus than free countries. In keeping with that, they have released laughably low and likely fraudulent coronavirus infection statistics, which have been contradicted by whistleblowers who have escaped the Chinese mainland.

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According to the WSJ report, “Chinese state media has pointed to the effectiveness of the country’s response in contrast to democratic countries, where a deference to individual liberties has contributed to the rampant spread of the virus.” Taiwan’s presentation, if permitted, would demonstrate that free, democratic societies can also effectively contain the coronavirus’ spread.

A spokesperson for the WHO explained the stated reasoning for Taiwan’s exclusion from conferences related to COVID-19 by saying that extending an invitation to Taiwan would lead to a challenge from other, unspecified nations, “at the expense of the good order of W.H.A. and its ability to function around substantive issues.”

President Trump and numerous other individuals have long accused the WHO and its head, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, of being in the pocket of the Chinese government, and of willingly repeating obvious communist Chinese propaganda. In April, Trump announced that he was halting United States funding to the organization, and in July, the administration sent a letter to Congress announcing that the U.S. would formally withdraw from the organization.

Former Vice President Joe Biden promised, in response, to immediately rejoin the organization if he was elected.