Origin of Disaster: When Only the China Virus is the Virus
United Daily News Editorial, May 22, 2021
In just a few days, Taiwan’s domestically transmitted cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) have reached 2,000 (Update: As of May 27, the number of confirmed cases is 6,761), and Taiwan’s glorious status as a model in epidemic prevention has fallen rapidly. When Europe and the United States, which were hit hard by the pandemic, begin to take off facial masks and return to ordinary life, Taiwan’s pandemic situation has reversed its course and surged to a climax. The root reason is the epidemic prevention strategy of the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen, which has employed an anti-China guiding principle. The Tsai administration sees threats from mainland China and ignores the fact that other countries may also spread the virus. The recklessness of the Tsai administration finally led to its loss at the last inning of the game.
The pandemic began in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in mainland China, so the “anti-China” Tsai administration easily found the entry point and quickly built an ironclad wall between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Even after Wuhan lifted the lockdown, Taiwanese people who resided in Wuhan were blocked to return to Taiwan: their identities were earmarked, their mainland Chinese spouses and children were denied human rights to go to Taiwan and the right to education. After the charter flights from Wuhan were possible, the polymerse chain reaction (PCR) tests before boarding the planes and the testing after landings were handled in the strictest manner by the Tsai administration; the returnees were sent to collective centers for quarantine and they still had to express their gratitude. In contrast, when the epidemic was rampant in Europe and the United States, Taiwanese people who were inflicted with the virus could board the returning flights publicly. The Tsai administration never concealed its double standard in human rights.
The most vivid contrast is the case of India. Recently India’s epidemic situation has worsened and there have been 200,000 to 300,000 confirmed cases daily, far exceeded the numbers in mainland China last year. But the procedures of boarding the planes and entry for returning Taiwanese from India did not receive the same strict requirements as the Wuhan charter flights. Speaking plainly, the Tsai administration has put all the scrutiny and resources on countering China, but it has forgotten that virus could enter Taiwan through other routes. Therefore, the Tsai administration was relaxed in treating the quarantines of pilots and crew members of Taiwan’s China Airlines, and the problem of mixed housings of the quarantined and non-quarantined guests at the Novotel was ignored. If this was not the case, how could the British variant of the virus enter Taiwan? The Tsai administration guarded entries from the mainland strictly but treated loosely all other entries, so Taiwan’s defense line against the coronavirus was breached just because of its double standard.
From the beginning of the war against the virus, the winning point has been the vaccines, and this is the key point why people in Europe and the U.S. can go back to normal routines. The Tsai administration has always boasted its “forward deployment” strategy but Taiwan has acquired only a limited number of AstraZeneka vaccines that have serious side effects. This again is related to the anti-China principle. Last year, Taiwan had the opportunity to buy vaccines made by Pfizer, but the Tsai administration was unwilling to acquire the vaccines through Shanghai’s Fosun Pharma, Pfizer’s agent in Greater China region. Moreover, members of factions of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party also intervened, so the deal failed. In the eyes of the Tsai administration, the health of Taiwanese people is inferior to political and business interests as well as their closeness to the government.
The Tsai administration is not worried that its nationals do not have good vaccines, but fought diplomatically with vaccines made in mainland China. The mainland gave its vaccines to countries in Central and South America but skipped Taiwan’s diplomatic allies such as Honduras and Guatemala. In order to obtain vaccines, Honduras claimed that it might establish an office in mainland China. To counter this, the Tsai administration used the “checkbook diplomacy”, including the grant of NT$460 million (about U.S.$16 million) to help Paraguay purchase 2 million doses of vaccines, but the government forgot that only 1 percent of Taiwanese have been vaccinated.
On May 12, Taiwan saw the outbreak of cluster infections in Yilan and New Taipei’s Luzhou District, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed the video clips of Minister Joseph Wu with Guatemalan foreign minister, claiming Taiwan had helped Guatemala obtain vaccines. It is hard to understand when the Tsai administration claims that the U.S.-Taiwan relationship is at the best in 40 years and when the United States has over 2 billion doses of vaccines, has Ambassador Hsiao Bi-Khim, representative to the United States, obtained any vaccines for Taiwan?
This question was answered when Ambassador Hsiao was interviewed by reporters recently. She said that previously she was helping Taiwan’s diplomatic allies to acquire vaccines, but since the recent surge of epidemic cases in Taiwan, she began to spend her effort on obtaining vaccines for Taiwan this week. Hsiao’s words unveiled the mystery why Taiwan was unable to get American vaccines because she had spent all her effort on countering mainland China. Even after China has succeeded in combating the coronavirus, Taiwan refuses to learn from the mainland’s experience, such as expanding screening and treatment of patients of light symptoms in mobile cabin hospitals. All of this is the mentality of unreasonable enmity towards the mainland.
A German press describes Taiwan’s surge in epidemic situation as “Taiwan is the victim of its own success” because Taiwan had ignored the importance of learning new knowledge on epidemic from the world. The Tsai administration considers the efforts to combat the coronavirus as part of its campaign against China, and thinks that only Chinese virus is the virus and ignores all other breaching points; this has resulted in Taiwan’s unexpected failure.