Taiwan and the WHO: negotiating the deconstruction of racialized discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Abstract Racialized and politicized discourses on individuals and countries have accompanied the emergence and spread of COVID-19. Adopting critical discourse analysis (CDA) and investigating the WHO's news releases, press conferences and the Taiwanese government's formal responses, this article examines three discursive events involving the deconstruction of racialized discourses during the pandemic by the WHO, the WHO's Director-General and Taiwan. Specifically, I focus on the following: the WHO's calls on the international community to cease using the term ‘China virus’; Dr Ghebreyesus' calls on Taiwan to cease leveling racist insults against the Black community; and the Taiwanese government's refutation of racist allegations by deconstructing racialized meanings and highlighting its marginal status in the global health system due to international politics. The findings demonstrate the different ways each subject framed moral and immoral practice, highlighted or downplayed racialized discourse, and applied moral vs immoral distinction to manipulate and reinforce the audience's thoughts. This article contributes to the field of international relations and its connection with racism by showing how racial injustices ‘travel’ between places and are negotiated and re-politicized in the global health sphere.