How political tensions between Taiwan and mainland China could hamper efforts to fight Wuhan virus
- The self-governed island has recorded its first case of the new coronavirus but its exclusion from the World Health Organisation risks hampering efforts to stop its spread
- The Beijing government has been trying to put pressure on Tsai Ing-wen’s administration which refuses to accept the one-China principle, and now faces a dilemma over how far it wishes to cooperate with Taipei
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s hardline stance and the island’s exclusion from the World Health Organisation have put Beijing in a bind as the Chinese mainland struggles to contain the virus that has infected almost 300 people in the country.
Beijing’s dilemma was highlighted on Tuesday when Taiwan announced its first confirmed case – a 55 year-old woman who had returned to the island from Wuhan, where the new strain originated.
The Taiwanese woman, who works in the mainland city, was immediately placed in hospital quarantine after she landed at Taoyuan International Airport on Monday.
“The woman developed fever symptoms on January 11 but did not check into a local hospital in Wuhan,” Huang Wang-ting, a doctor with the Taiwan Central Epidemic Command Centre, told a press conference on Tuesday evening.
Taiwan’s Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said that none of the patient’s family members had developed symptoms and 46 other individuals who had been in close contact on the plane had been placed under medical observation.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry has previously warned that being shut out from WHO’s annual World Health Assembly amid frozen cross-strait relations with Beijing could have public health consequences.
