China has dropped its long-standing opposition to Taiwan participating in the World Health Organisation's annual assembly, paving the way for the island to attend a United Nations meeting next month for the first time since it was expelled in 1971.
Margaret Chan, the WHO's director-general, has invited Yeh Ching-chuan, Taiwan's health minister, to participate in the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva as an observer from “Chinese Taipei”, the name the island uses to participate in the Olympics and the World Trade Organisation.
The move, which comes as the world is struggling to contain Mexican swine flu, is the latest sign of improving relations across the Taiwan Strait and is a political victory for Ma Ying-jeou, the island's president, of the ruling Kuomintang party.