Playing Politics With Human Lives: China and the Wuhan Coronavirus Crisis 

The term “coronavirus” is now a well known term. Governments around the world are scrambling to contain the global health and humanitarian crisis as the disease spreads out from China. But even as the Chinese government takes drastic measures to contain the virus after weeks of inaction, it is also seizing the opportunity to use spiraling events as a tool to influence foreign nations and international organizations.

Reports and discussions of a mysterious disease started to spread as early as December 2019 through the internet and unverifiable reports. Starting in early January 2020, countries began reporting cases of infection. By late January, Wuhan, the city of 11 million people where the outbreak is suspected of having started, was sealed off.

Taiwan nationals held hostage by the situation, and the Chinese government

Despite an internal public health crisis, Beijing seemed to have realized that it effectively has just held thousands of foreign nationals hostage as it locked down Wuhan, the province of Hubei and beyond. Countries with which China is interested in maintaining friendly relations were able to evacuate their citizens easily. Washington, which paused its pummeling of the Chinese economy after signing a phase-one trade deal with Beijing on January 15th, was able to get its diplomats and nationals out first. Countries like France, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, and many others either plan to or have evacuated their citizens.

But these on-going requests continue to depend on the Chinese government for approval. And there appears to be a correlation between how much the Chinese government is appeased and how fast these requests are processed.

Taiwan seems to be getting the shortest end of the stick, after voting for president Tsai Ing-wen instead of the pro-Beijing mayor of Kaohsiung Han Kuo-yu in the January election. Taiwanese businesspeople are reporting to the Mainland Affairs Council that medicine continues to run short as the Chinese government cooperates reluctantly.

It appears that elements of the pro-Beijing opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) played a role in backchannel negotiations over the first flight to evacuate Taiwanese people from Wuhan. Taiwan’s government offered to charter a flight but that was apparently not accepted.

The attempt to retrieve Taiwanese nationals appears to be obstructed by opaque layers of backchannel conversations, which includes a seven-person task force within the KMT. The existence of a KMT backchannel group was revealed by the party itself as it sought to take credit for the initial apparent success of the evacuation effort.

A China Eastern Airlines (not to be confused with Taiwan’s China Airlines) flight was dispatched to evacuate Taiwanese citizens on January 3rd. But some Taiwanese nationals prioritized for evacuation, such as the elderly, children, and the sick, were not evacuated on this flight. Instead, up to fifty PRC-national spouses of Taiwanese businesspeople were transported to Taiwan as a part of the evacuation effort, according to Next Magazine.

The middle man coordinating the evacuation between China and Taiwan, Hsu Cheng-wen, is also a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). CPPCC is a PRC state apparatus for united front work. Hsu reportedly had control over the list of passengers on the flight, but handed the list to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council only an hour before the flight’s departure.

Though more evacuation flights were originally expected, the Mainland Affairs Council appears to have put a pause to the effort, in a press release expressing frustration at China’s unexpected manipulation of the entire process.

Other foreign nations are given the opportunity to evacuate their citizens with charter flights using national airlines. Taiwan was forced to concede these rights in an attempt to retrieve its nationals. China continues to act reluctantly, careful to ensure that it takes no action that could be interpreted to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state.

Censorship and influence in international organizations

What adds on to Taiwan’s frustration on top of fighting an epidemic, is how international organizations are in line with China’s political stance, seemingly directed by Beijing.

The UN and its affiliated organizations continue to exclude Taiwan from any international coordination or cooperation. Even the International Civil Aviation Organization blocked the Twitter accounts of researchers and journalists who inquired about ICAO refusing to share flight information Taiwan.

The World Health Organization has officially commended China on its praiseworthy effort in addressing the epidemic. But instead of the Chinese government’s initial focus was instead to suppress news of the event, even silencing Dr. Li Wenliang, a doctor in Wuhan who tried to raise the possibility of a viral problem in December. Dr. Li himself died of the virus on Thursday.

Little attention was put on how at each level, the Chinese leadership failed to contain the spread of the virus. Only after the virus proliferated with the help of massive crowds traveling during the Lunar New Year did the Chinese government acknowledge that there was a problem.

Taiwan, still excluded

The WHO’s praise of China’s effort of the diseases is juxtaposed by an air of anxiety and paranoia in Taiwan as the number of confirmed cases continues to rise. Supply of masks is controlled by the Taiwan government and an export ban is imposed on them, as people scramble to buy them in bulks. Taiwan continues to be excluded for purely political reasons, as it stands at the front line of contact with China.

The air within Taiwan is dense. The current outbreak of the virus reminds many people of the SARS epidemic 17 years ago, another deadly outbreak that originated from China. During the SARS crisis, China also insisted that international efforts exclude Taiwan and instead be rerouted to Beijing first for “distribution to Taiwan.”

Pro-Beijing and pro-unification politicians, entertainers, and media figures have criticized the current DPP government for imposing an export ban on masks. But it has been difficult for many Taiwanese to show solidarity and support this time, as opposed to other humanitarian disasters in China such as the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, when the Taiwanese government and private sector donated up to NT$4.4 billion dollars in aid.

But after China steadily stepped up acts of military and political aggression in the past several years, the Taiwanese public is wary of having their kindness demeaned.

Meanwhile, it is becoming clear that the continued exclusion of Taiwan in international participation due to China’s coercion and global influence is not viable. Millions of people are unfairly put under greater risk of contracting disease over the actions of unelected bureaucrats on the other side of the strait.

If and when the coronavirus is sorted out, will the rest of the world continue to turn a blind eye to China’s cover up and manipulation, or will it realize the Chinese regime’s extreme self-serving nature when it comes to humanitarian efforts and global health? For how long will Taiwan continue to be unrecognized alone in its struggle against authoritarianism?

(Feature photo from Wikicommons via China News Service, CC BY 3.0)