The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that its position on Taiwan remained unchanged after Japan’s finance minister claimed that the health body’s chief executive intended to strengthen ties with the island.On December 6, Japanese Minister of Finance Satsuki Katayama made a social media post in Japanese stating that during a visit to Tokyo, the WHO director general had “explicitly [stated] his intention to strengthen ties” with Taiwan.

The post was made following a forum in Tokyo on universal health coverage organised by the Japanese government and the WHO. The event was attended by WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

In one of the photos attached to her post, Katayama was shown shaking hands with Tedros, who has been accused by some – most notably US President Donald Trump – of being biased towards Beijing.

In response to a query from the South China Morning Post about Katayama’s post, a WHO media representative said that the organisation’s relations with Taiwan would continue to follow the “status quo”.

“Our position hasn’t changed. Our position is that we have existing relations with Taiwanese health partners,” the representative said.