The new assertive approach has incensed corporate leaders, with billionaire miner Andrew Forrest and media mogul Kerry Stokes urging the government to back off to protect their business interests. That tension is set to peak at the World Health Assembly on May 17, when Australia will formalise its call for a global independent review. The US is expected to lobby for Taiwan to be granted observer status after it became one of the first countries to successfully suppress the coronavirus despite its geographical, economic and cultural proximity to China. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Australia supported Taiwan’s involvement in the World Health Organisation’s work. "The challenge of COVID-19 demands a determined, global response. The WHO must therefore maintain a close working relationship with all health authorities," he said. "We support Taiwan’s participation as an observer or guest, consistent with our one-China policy."

Taiwan is only eligible for observer status at the World Health Organisation because it is not defined as its own state by the UN body. The Chinese Communist Party has viewed the capitalist Taiwan as a breakaway province since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. The China-leaning Kuomintang government negotiated observer status under the name "Chinese Taipei" between 2009 and 2015, but the election of pro-independence President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016 saw their access withdrawn. Despite growing international pressure, Beijing - the WHO's second largest financier - has successfully lobbied the UN body to shut out Taiwan. Taiwan's Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on Tuesday that other countries should be able to learn from Taiwan's early quarantine, isolation and pandemic preparation measures, which were critical in suppressing the virus. China's southern neighbour has had just 429 cases of coronavirus, compared to more than 6700 in Australia.

"If it is indeed WHO’s mission to ensure the highest attainable standard of health for every human being, then WHO needs Taiwan just as Taiwan needs WHO," Dr Chen said. Loading The diplomatic push follows a wider dispute between Australia and China and rising business anxiety over the deteriorating relationship. The clash culminated when Mr Forrest, the Fortescue chairman, was accused of ambushing Health Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday by inviting China’s consul-general for Victoria, Zhou Long, to speak alongside him at an official event. Mr Zhou was formerly the cyber affairs coordinator at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Forrest, who had secured 10 million coronavirus tests for Australia from business contacts in China, denied he had blindsided Mr Hunt after urging the government to be better friends with Beijing. A media event on Thursday that was also due to feature Mr Hunt and Mr Forrest, announcing $67 million in cancer treatments, was subsequently cancelled.

Mr Stokes, the Seven West Media chairman who has mining and equipment interests in China, used his West Australian newspaper on Thursday to back Mr Forrest's push for Australia to back down on its pursuit of a global inquiry. Loading "If we're going to go into the biggest debt we’ve had in our life and then simultaneously poke our biggest provider of income in the eye it's not necessarily the smartest thing you can do," he said. Labor senator Kimberley Kitching warned Mr Stokes and Mr Forrest against advocating foreign policy positions similar to those pushed by foreign governments. "They should be mindful that we have Foreign Influence Transparency laws in Australia," she said. "The fact that our national interests do not always align with those of China should not be a controversial proposition."