Has China done a good job
fighting the coronavirus?
They’ve gotten a lot of praise.
But Taiwan does it differently.
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m Chris Chappell.
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The Chinese Communist Party has taken
some pretty heavy handed measures
to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Like putting an entire province of 58 million people under lockdown...
Restricting the movements of more than half the country…
and forcing people who might be sick
into quarantine centers against their will.
The World Health Organization has praised how China
has handled the coronavirus outbreak.
“Almost all member states are praising China for what they did.
China took action massively at the epicenter,
at the source of the outbreak.”
And even some Western media have been praising the China model.
*This* article suggests that “drastic measures—
similar to those deployed by China and imposed in parts of Italy—
to contain the epidemic are now overdue elsewhere.”
Yeah, I can’t wait to see this in America.
And Chinese state-run media haven’t just been praising
their own authoritarian system.
They’ve also been highlighting criticism of the United States
and other democracies for their coronavirus response.
Which of course shows just how superior
China’s authoritarian response to the coronavirus has been.
As long as you ignore the part where
they let it spread uncontrolled for weeks
and detained people for talking about it.
But democratic Taiwan has taken a very different
approach to the coronavirus than mainland China.
And it’s kept the number infections and deaths shockingly low.
Based on the numbers,
Taiwan should have been hit really hard by the coronavirus.
There have officially been 80,000 infections in mainland China.
The true figure is probably at least a few hundred thousand,
because there aren’t enough healthcare workers or test kits
to test all the people who are at risk.
Not to mention the fact that the Chinese Communist Party
has a keen interest in keeping the official count low.
Taiwan’s population is one sixtieth of China’s.
Based on that,
you might expect Taiwan to have at least a thousand cases.
But it only has 47.
That’s really few—
especially given that millions of people travel
between China and Taiwan each year...
and especially given that the World Health Organization
has excluded Taiwan from participating in W.H.O. programs,
because of pressure from China.
So why are there so few cases in Taiwan?
Especially when there are so many cases
in South Korea, Italy, and Iran?
It’s because Taiwan’s response to the coronavirus
has been diligent, open, and transparent.
It’s no secret what Taiwan’s leadership
thinks about the Chinese Communist Party.
“President Tsai says Beijing is the biggest threat
to Taiwan’s free and democratic way of life.”
And it turns out,
Taiwan recognizing Beijing’s threat on all levels
has been a very wise perspective for handling the coronavirus.
As of what we know now,
the first coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan,
China started some time around early December last year.
But the Chinese officials covered it up until January 20.
That’s when Chinese leader Xi Jinping
first publicly admitted that the new coronavirus was a thing,
and that officials should make “resolute efforts” to curb the virus.
But a full three weeks before that—
while Xi Jinping was giving his New Year propaganda speech
and most people in China had no idea about the coronavirus...
...Taiwan’s leadership was already on the ball.
“On December 31, 2019, when the World Health Organization
was notified of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China,
Taiwanese officials began to board planes and assess passengers
on direct flights from Wuhan
for fever and pneumonia symptoms
before passengers could deplane.”
Then, “As early as January 5, 2020,
notification was expanded to include any individual
who had traveled to Wuhan in the past 14 days
and had a fever or symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection.”
And soon, the Taiwan government began
a highly effective campaign to educate the public.
Taiwan’s Minister of Health
has given numerous matter-of-fact speeches
about the risks of the coronavirus,
and how people can protect themselves.
President Tsai Ing-wen made this video about
how pharmacies are rationing surgical masks.
Taiwan is using a mask rationing system
to stop people from hoarding and price gouging masks.
At the same time, Taiwan has also
dramatically increased their mask manufacturing.
And President Tsai demonstrated social distancing,
by using a traditional greeting instead of a handshake.
Much better than the social distancing
most of experienced in high school.
Not me of course.
And most importantly,
Taiwan’s government at all levels has pushed
the most important message over and over again:
Wash your hands—your filthy, filthy hands.
And because it’s Taiwan,
a lot of the messaging involves cuddly mascots.
Like this shiba inu.
Who tells you to wash your dirty paws.
Cover your snout when sneezing
and keep a positive attitude while doing epidemic prevention.
How can you say no to that face?
That’s so much better than Corona-Chan.
But I wouldn’t want you to think that Taiwan’s disease prevention
relies entirely on shiba inus.
They’re also using robots.
One elementary school in Taiwan built these LEGO robots
to dispense disinfectant.
“Washing hands is super!”
Side note, when you’re washing your hands with soap,
you should scrub them for a full 20 seconds.
That’s how long it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice.
You don’t have to sing it out loud.
Or you could recite the Litany Against Fear from Dune.
That works too.
One reason Taiwan has done such a good job fighting the coronavirus
is because of their experience with the SARS epidemic in 2003,
where more than 400 people in Taiwan were infected.
Less than a year later,
Taiwan established the National Health Command Center, or NHCC.
“The NHCC is meant to serve as
a disaster management center command point,
coordinating and advising authorities
at a regional and central level,
so that in the case of a new outbreak,
no time and resources are wasted.”
The NHCC used technology to merge the databases
for Taiwan’s national health insurance system
and its travel entry system.
“Persons with low risk were sent a health declaration border pass
via SMS to their phones for faster immigration clearance;
those with higher risk were quarantined at home
and tracked through their mobile phone
to ensure that they remained at home during the incubation period.”
So instead of forcibly quarantining 58 million people,
Taiwan only quarantined the small number of individuals
who actually posed a risk to others.
Yeah, that’s much better than this.
Taiwan has also fared a lot better than some of the countries
that have joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
South Korea, Italy, and Iran all have serious outbreaks right now.
And their governments all have strong ties
to the Chinese Communist Party.
Coincidence?
Maybe, maybe not.
Consider this: China’s official position
is that travel restrictions are an “overreaction.”
And China has criticized the West for spreading
“negative, twisted falsehoods” about the coronavirus.
I’ll bet certain governments felt political pressure
to not to take massive action back in January,
when the coronavirus could have been more easily stopped.
For example, Italy joined China’s Belt and Road last year.
That may be why they hesitated to impose a travel ban
on visitors from mainland China.
Of course, the coronavirus has now spread
to more than 9,000 people in Italy,
and the entire country is on lockdown.
South Korea and Iran also didn’t issue travel restrictions
or do big public health campaigns early on,
perhaps to avoid upsetting Beijing.
On the other hand,
Taiwan started taking action a full three weeks
before the Chinese Communist Party
even admitted there was an outbreak.
They ignored the pressure, and they did it right.
The lesson?
Good things come to those
who don’t trust the Chinese Communist Party.
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Once again, I’m Chris Chappell.
See you next time.