The announcement was made by Jane Halton, president of the Assembly and secretary of the Department of Health and Aging of Australia, following a recommendation from the 25-member General Committee and then a roll call vote by member states at the plenary session.

    The result of the vote showed that an overwhelming majority of WHO member states are opposed to including the Taiwan-related proposal in the agenda.

    This is the 11th time in as many years that a Taiwan-related proposal was rejected in the assembly.

    In the following interventions, many states also stressed that they support the one-China policy, and Taiwan, as a province of China, is not eligible for WHO membership.

    The WHA is the supreme decision-making body of the WHO. It meets in Geneva in May each year, attended by delegations from all193 member states.

    The proposal, put forward by a small number of countries, ignored related UN resolutions and claimed that Taiwan should be a "member state" of the WHO.

    The Taiwan authorities have attempted in vain to become an observer of the WHA, but this year it tried to become a "full member state" of the WHO.

    Addressing Monday's conference, Chinese Minister of Health Gao Qiang reiterated that Taiwan is a province of China and it is not eligible for WHO membership, which is only open to sovereign states.

    "Taiwan is an inalienable part of China. Although the reunification of the mainland and Taiwan has yet to be achieved due to historical reasons, the fact that the mainland and Taiwan both belong to one China will never change," Gao said.

    Gao noted that the focus of attention of the "Taiwan membership" proposal is not the well-being of the Taiwan people, but to seek "Taiwan Independence" in the international arena, and serves the election campaign of certain political figures on the island.

    "This proposal disregards the UN Charter and the WHO Constitution, violates the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and the WHA, challenges the internationally-acknowledged One China Principle, sabotages the consensus of the WHA of the past 10 consecutive years, and seriously hurts the feelings of the member states," Gao said.