Taipei, Taiwan: Taiwan's foreign ministry on Thursday strongly protested accusations from the head of the World Health Organisation that it condoned racist personal attacks on him, attacks that he alleged were coming from the self-governing island democracy.

Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu denies the accusations from the WHO director general. Credit:AP

The ministry expressed "strong dissatisfaction and a high degree of regret, and raised the most solemn protest." Taiwan is a "mature, highly sophisticated nation and could never instigate personal attacks on the director-general of the WHO, much less express racist sentiments," the statement said.

Taiwan's 23 million people have themselves been "severely discriminated against" by the politics of the international health system and "condemn all forms of discrimination and injustice," the statement said.

On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused Taiwan's foreign ministry of being linked to a months-long campaign against him amid the COVID-19 pandemic. At a press briefing, Tedros said that since the emergence of the novel coronavirus, he has been personally attacked, including receiving at times, death threats and racist abuse.