GENEVA (Reuters) -Taiwan&nbsp;failed on Monday in its efforts to gain an invitation to the World Health Organization's&nbsp;annual&nbsp;assembly&nbsp;despite the island's assertion that support was growing for its participation.
The&nbsp;annual&nbsp;assembly&nbsp;in Geneva decided not to extend&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;an invitation to the event, which runs&nbsp;from&nbsp;May 21-30. China and Pakistan urged members to reject&nbsp;Taiwan's inclusion, while eSwatini and the Marshall Islands spoke in favour.
China claims sovereignty over&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;and says the island is not a separate country but part of "one China" governed by Beijing. China's insistence that&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;is not a country means that the island is&nbsp;excluded&nbsp;from&nbsp;many international organisations.
Taiwan&nbsp;condemned the&nbsp;WHO&nbsp;decision, saying it was "contemptible" of China to block its participation in global bodies and that Beijing had no right to speak for the island.
"Only&nbsp;Taiwan's democratically elected government can represent&nbsp;Taiwan's 23 million people in the&nbsp;WHO&nbsp;and other international organisations and protect the health and human rights of the&nbsp;Taiwanese people," its foreign ministry said.
China welcomed the decision.
"This fully shows that the one-China principle is the aspiration of the people and the trend of the times in the international community and cannot be challenged in any way," the&nbsp;Chinese&nbsp;foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said that before the opening of the conference, nearly 100 countries expressed their adherence to the one-China principle and their&nbsp;opposition&nbsp;to&nbsp;Taiwan's participation in the World Health&nbsp;Assembly&nbsp;by means of special letters to the&nbsp;WHO&nbsp;and statements.
"China also urges certain countries not to pretend to be confused, stop politicizing the health issue, stop interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of the&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;issue, and stop the erroneous practice of using 'Taiwan&nbsp;to control China'," the ministry said.
Taiwan&nbsp;is allowed to attend some technical&nbsp;WHO&nbsp;meetings but said its exclusion&nbsp;from&nbsp;the&nbsp;WHO&nbsp;hindered efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The island rejects China's sovereignty claims and says only the&nbsp;Taiwanese people can decide their future.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and Bernard Orr in Beijing; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei;Editing by Rachel More, Robert Birsel and Sharon Singleton)

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Taiwan excluded from WHO annual assembly following Chinese opposition