As the global outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic continued, Radio France International and Deutsche Welle published separate articles praising Taiwan for taking effective measures to contain the virus and set a good example for the world.
Though located across a strait from mainland China, Taiwan, with a population of 23.5 million, managed to have only 42 cases of infection and one death.
As they mentioned, Taiwan, with a democratic system and a history of resisting the Chinese Communist Party, set an example to show the “difference between a democratic country and an autocratic regime in handling the pandemic.”
The two articles listed the following factors that resulted in success in Taiwan:
- Stopped people from mainland China from entering Taiwan and quarantined non-Chinese citizens who traveled from mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao to Taiwan.
- Established a “unified command” system in 2004, a year after the SARS outbreak. The key to this mechanism is to include multiple agencies, including transportation, customs, and education, together. At the beginning stage, the government conducted a big data analysis with citizens’ health records and the National Immigration Agency’s data, to provide travel history to the medical staff members to better identify the coronavirus infection.
- Implemented quarantine measures with full respect for individual rights. “They let the people under quarantine feel that the government cares about their safety. Thus the people with suspected infections come forward to the government for a further check. This is the biggest difference between a democratic country and an autocratic regime in handling the pandemic.” Many people in China are afraid to admit that they have been infected because they don’t know what the government might do to them afterward.
Also, the Communist regime reduced the number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan as a punishment to Taiwan for re-electing Tsai Ing-Wen as the President. This helped Taiwan to contain the pandemic.
Related postings on Chinascope:
- “World Leader”: Beijing Released a Documentary “The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan”
- “World Leader”: Beijing Is Thinking Creating a Beijing-led World Health Organization to Replace WHO
- “World Leader”: Commentary by Minister of Foreign Affairs
- Leadership: The Hype and Stop of the Book “The Great Power Fighting Epidemic”