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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because YouTube has been unsubscribing people with no notification.

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So 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.

In mainland China, there have officially been 80,000 infections.

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 us 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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