As Taiwan shows, the antidote to the virus is freedom

WASHINGTON » We continue to learn more about the Chinese Communist regime’s lies and culpability in the global coronavirus pandemic. But if you want to see the difference between how a totalitarian and a free Chinese society handles a public health emergency, just contrast the actions of the People’s Republic with those of the Republic of China, Taiwan. One is responsible for unleashing a contagion that has infected more than 2 million people; the other has all but defeated the virus.

Taiwan should have seen the second-largest outbreak of COVID-19 in the world, according to an analysis published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. The island is just 81 miles off the coast of China, had 2.7 million visitors from the mainland last year and has about 1.25 million citizens who either reside in or work in China. Yet Taiwan has seen only six people die of COVID-19 out of a total of just 393 confirmed cases. Even more amazing, 338 of those cases were individuals infected abroad. In other words, Taiwan has seen just 55 local infections, which means it has effectively eliminated community transmission. Last week, the government reported zero new COVID-19 cases in Taiwan.

What is most impressive is that Taiwan has done all this without ordering its population to shelter in place or shutting down schools, restaurants, stores and other businesses. As a result, Taiwan’s economy is not experiencing the same economic damage as countries under lockdown.

So how did Taiwan succeed where Beijing failed? According to the JAMA study, Taiwan took rapid and specific actions to identify and isolate those who either had the virus or came into contact with those who did.

First, Taiwan acted fast. On Dec. 31, while Beijing was still denying the virus was capable of human transmission, Taiwanese officials began boarding planes arriving from Wuhan to identify and isolate passengers with fever or pneumonia before they could deplane. On Jan. 5, they denied entry to any individual who had traveled to Wuhan in the past 14 days and had a fever or respiratory symptoms. On Jan. 30, the government expanded its surveillance system to cover all travelers from China, Hong Kong and Macao. On Feb. 6, all international cruise ships were banned. On Feb. 14, an entry quarantine system was implemented that required all travelers to complete electronic health declarations. Anyone identified as high risk was placed under 14-day home quarantine and monitored electronically through their mobile phones.

Contrast this with the actions of the Chinese Communists, who punished doctors who tried to sound the alarm about the disease, ordered them to destroy virus samples and lied to the world. As part of its intimidation campaign before Taiwan’s Jan. 11 presidential election, Beijing banned Chinese tourism to Taiwan — which reduced the number of Chinese tourists at the very moment the virus was spreading rapidly in Wuhan.

But those efforts to isolate Taiwan may have hurt us. On Dec. 31, Taiwan tried to warn the World Health Organization about the danger the virus posed. But because China will not let Taiwan join international organizations, its warnings were ignored as the WHO continued to parrot Beijing’s lies. Had Taiwan been a member, we would have learned several critical weeks sooner about the coming danger.