As many countries have withdrawn their citizens from Wuhan, Taiwan also wanted to evacuate its 300 citizens who are currently trapped in Wuhan. However, Beijing wouldn’t give the evacuation a green light but instead claimed that it will provide “special care” for them in Wuhan.
An Epoch Times article commented that there could be three possible reasons for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to do this:
- To keep the Taiwan people as political hostages in revenge for its defeat in the Taiwan Presidential election. The CCP supported the Kuomintang candidate, Han Kuo-yu, whose relationship with the CCP was much closer than that of President Tsai Ing-wen.
- To keep them long enough to make some of them catch the virus or even die. That could create a big backlash against Tsai’s government in Taiwan.
- To give their “red agents” an opportunity to gain political capital. These agents could come out as the heroic mediators who broker a deal between the two sides and bring the Taiwan people back.
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Source: Epoch Times, February 1, 2020
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/20/2/1/n11836485.htm