On March 28, Bruce Aylward, an Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) took a video conference interview with Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). He gave some bizarre responses when reporter Yvonne Tong asked him about Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has declared that Taiwan is part of itself and with its influence, locked Taiwan out of the WHO and other international organizations. (Epoch Times)

Tong: “Will the WHO consider Taiwan’s membership?”

Aylward: No response.

Tong: “Hello?”

Aylward: “I’m sorry. I couldn’t hear your question. Yvonne.”

Tong: “Okay, let me repeat the question.”

Aylward: “No, that’s okay. Let’s move to another one then.”

Tong: “I’m actually curious in talking about Taiwan as well. On Taiwan’s case.”

Video conference was disconnected.

Tong called Aylward again.

Tong: “I just want to see if you can comment a bit on how Taiwan has done so far in terms of containing the virus.”

Aylward: “Well, we’ve already talked about China, and, you know, when you look across all the different areas of China, they’ve actually all done quite a good job. So with that, I’d like to thank you very much for inviting us to participate…”

Interview can be seen online: https://twitter.com/HKWORLDCITY/status/1243865641448169474

The WHO made a statement later that day, saying that the question of Taiwanese membership was not for its staff to answer, but instead “up to WHO member states.” (Radio France International)

U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo told the media on March 30, that the State Department will try its best to help Taiwan to obtain an appropriate role in the WHO. President Trump signed the TAIPEI ACT on March 26, which called for the U.S. to use its influence and other vehicles to support Taiwan to become a non-sovereignty-state member of international organizations and obtain observer status in other appropriate organizations. (Radio France International)

On April 2, Edward Yau, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, accused RTHK of breaching its charter obligations. He said, “The Secretary holds the view that the presentation in that episode of the aforesaid program has breached the One-China Principle and the purposes and mission of RTHK as a public service broadcaster as specified in the Charter.” (The Guardian)

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On April 1, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen announced that, out of concern for humanity, Taiwan would donate 10 million face masks to the medical staff of the countries that are suffering severe coronavirus infections, including 2 million to the U.S., 7 million to Europe, and 1 million to countries that maintain diplomatic relationship with Taiwan.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission thanked Taiwan in her personal Tweet. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the U.S. diplomatic mission in Taiwan, thanked Taiwan in its post, and said, “Taiwan is indeed a true friend!”

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China is facing a severe economic slowdown and massive unemployment because the coronavirus hit it so badly.

#1: Caixin published a model that forecasted 150 to 200 million people will lose their jobs. Using the step-by-step estimation method, 200 million people (including 180 million in the service industry) will lose their jobs. Using the aggregation estimation method, 150 million (including 110 million in the service industry) will lose their jobs. (Caixin)

#2: According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by March 30, 76 percent of small or mid-sized companies resumed operation. That means 24 percent, or nearly a quarter of the companies did not resume yet. (HK01)

#3: The South China Morning Post reported that more than 460,000 companies in China stopped their operations in the first quarter. (Radio France International)

#4: Western buyers have canceled many orders they placed with Chinese companies. The only hot orders are medical supplies. There will be 9 million college students graduating this summer. However, the number of possible jobs for those college graduates has dropped 30 percent from a year ago. Peng Airao, the Chief Economist of the Great China Regions of the ING Bank, predicted that China’s unemployment rate may rise to 10 percent by the end of this year. (Voice of America)

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China has implemented a Health “Code” (健康码), installing it on each individual’s mobile phone. The Health Code has three colors: green, yellow, and red. Different locales may implement the color system differently, but in general, green means the phone holder is healthy; yellow means the person needs to quarantine himself at home; and red means the person needs to go to the hospital for quarantine and treatment.

People are required to install the Health Code app on their phone and show the status when entering places.

Wuhan recently mandated that when riding the bus or subway, people must use their phone to scan the bus or subway car barcode when getting on and scan it again when getting off. This will allow the government to track who rides the bus or train and from which station to which station. When one person is confirmed as having the coronavirus infection, the Health Code of other people who also rode the same bus or train car will change to yellow, meaning they need to quarantine themselves at home.

Radio Free Asia reported that it received a notice that a residential community management office sent to the residents. The notice stated: “According to the notice from the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, if citizens went out for a non-business reason and had contact with a novel coronavirus patient, or was suspected or confirmed as having the coronavirus infection, they would be responsible for all expenses, including the quarantine cost, examination cost, treatment cost, and living expenses.” The notice stated that the 14-day quarantine and medical exam cost is about 8,000 yuan (US $ 1,120) and the treatment cost for a confirmed patient is 400,000 yuan (US $56,000).

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Globalization has resulted in the manufacturing of many medical products and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) moving to China. During the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is able to control the export of medical materials to support countries that are its “friend” and also to force other countries to reduce their criticisms of the CCP.

#1: On March 4, Xinhua published a commentary on U.S.-China relationship, stating that it can send the U.S. to “the hell of the novel coronavirus pandemic” by banning the export of medical supplies.

“If China retaliates against the U.S. at this time, in addition to announcing a travel ban on the U.S., it can also announce the strategic control of medical products and a ban on exports to the U.S. Then the U.S. will be fully trapped in the novel coronavirus.

“According to the public statements of officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most of the face masks in the U.S. are manufactured in and imported from China. If China prohibits the export of masks to the U.S., the U.S. will fall into a mask shortage. Then it won’t even be able to take the most basic measures to prevent the novel coronavirus.

“Also, according to the public statement of the CDC officials, most of the drugs in the U.S. are also imported. Though some drugs are imported from Europe, their production bases are still placed in China. Therefore, more than 90 percent of imported drugs in the U.S. are related to China. This means that, at this time, as long as China declares to keep its medicines for domestic demand and ban exports, the U.S. will fall into the hell of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”

#2: An article from the Washington Times, back on March 17, said the coronavirus is a “wake-up call” to the U.S. that it is overly dependent on China for its pharmaceutical supplies. “With the coronavirus crisis threatening to strain the U.S. government’s large stockpiles of such drugs, health experts warn that China’s own outbreak and related societal shutdown could mean major shortages ahead as Chinese factories struggle to keep up production of the APIs.”

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