The SARS epidemic originated in China. It has spread to many countries, not only leading to international economic losses amounting to tens of billions of US dollars, but also causing many deaths and broken homes. Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, all ethnic Chinese societies, have too much interaction with China and have therefore suffered particularly severe losses.
Even if the epidemic is quickly contained, the Taiwanese economy may still suffer economic losses in excess of NT$100 billion. If it can't be quickly contained, those losses will be even heavier. The functioning of Taiwanese society, human interaction, daily life and international contacts have already been deeply affected. The value of such intangible losses is difficult to estimate.
The main reason why this epidemic has created such a serious disaster is China's confused bureaucracy, fighting to gain credit for some things while shifting the blame for others and presenting a falsely positive picture of the situation. The deeper reason, however, is that China has never understood that human life is invaluable. The SARS epidemic erupted in Guangdong Province as early as November last year, just as the Communist Party of China was convening its 16th National Congress.
For political reasons, the epidemic was covered up. Even after the epidemic began to spread, China continued to make false announcements to the world. This wasted precious time, making it difficult to control the spread of the epidemic.
From the moment communist power was established in China, its history has been one of trampled-upon human rights and killings. During the Korean War, when China helped North Korea fight the US, the number of Chinese deaths was more than 10 times those of the US army, but, to this day, China still claims to have won the war. In 1979, China started a punitive war against Vietnam, a war that resulted in heavier casualties for China than for Vietnam. Still, China claimed to have taught Vietman a lesson.
Over the past 50 years, China has seen an uninterrupted succession of political movements large and small, each accompanied by a large death toll. Each of the "three evils," "five evils" and "anti-rightist" campaigns in the 1950s led to millions of deaths, and the woefully misguided policies of the Great Leap Forward, also in the 1950s, led to more than 30 million deaths from starvation. Countless people died unjust deaths in the armed struggles during the 10-year-long disaster that began with the onset of the Cultural Revolution in 1966.
Other smaller incidents, such as the persecution of members of the democracy movement, the bloodbath on Tiananmen Square in 1989, the suppression of the Tibet uprising, or the persecution of Falun Gong members, are too numerous to list. Such a government does, of course, not understand how precious and invaluable human life is. It will also have difficulties understanding its responsibilities towards the international community.
More than 20 years of economic reforms and more than 10 years of reorganizing the army and streamlining its weapons arsenal have led to a quadrupling of China's economic strength, and an increase in military strength. What's more, China is constantly repeating the mantra that it is meeting its international obligations and building a new economic order in accordance with international standards.
The international community's suspicions of China, however, are increasing, and the Chinese people are not respected globally. The reason for this is that a strong power that neglects human life can emphatically not be a responsible power, and will only constitute a threat to the international order. To escape the rule of such a government, the Chinese people are trying to think of ways to escape to other countries, only to become the main target of these nations' precautions. They are, of course, not respected.
To expect a government that doesn't even care about the lives of its own people to place any importance on the lives of Taiwanese people is like climbing trees to look for fish -- futile. Following the 921 earthquake in 1999, the International Red Cross was unable to lend Taiwan a helping hand because China objected. What's more, China even blocked rescue teams from other nations from travelling to Taiwan.
China continues to block Taiwan's efforts to participate in the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the reasons it has cited being that China is capable of caring for the health of the Taiwanese people. This claim has become an international joke since the fact is that China over and over again harms the health of the people of Taiwan.
When the enterovirus epidemic occurred some years back, Taiwan could not get timely assistance from the WHO due to Chinese obstruction. This led to the sacrifice of the precious lives of dozens of innocent children.
The spread of SARS from China to Taiwan has caused Taiwan heavy losses. Furthermore, WHO personnel still need a nod of approval from China before they can travel to Taiwan to assist the SARS prevention effort. When such a government talks loudly and unabashedly of being capable of caring for the health of the people of Taiwan, we can only shake our heads and sigh.
During the SARS epidemic, China has not missed any opportunity to display its revolting neglect for human life, its selfishness and its ignorance. Unless China can draw a lesson from this epidemic and learn to respect human life, it will never be able to understand its responsibilities toward the global village.
To this day, China has not apologized to Taiwan for the losses resulting from the SARS epidemic. Not only that but it has once again done its utmost to oppose Taiwan's bid to participate in the WHA as an observer.
But what else could be expected from a government that only knows how to trample on human life and human rights?
Lin Wen-cheng is director of the Institute of Mainland China Studies at National Sun Yat-sen University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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