The COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread throughout the world, showing no sign of ending. India has been suffering from a sudden spike of COVID-19 cases, worsened by the spread of a new virus variant.
Not only has India reached the unenviable figure of more than 20 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, ranking second in the world, its daily new recorded cases has reached more than 300,000, leading to the collapse of its medical system.
The situation is so dire that patients have been dying while waiting for hospital beds or oxygen supplies, and crematoriums are completely overwhelmed by the demand, leading to a potential major humanitarian crisis.
In Taiwan, on the other hand, thanks to its effective pandemic response measures, people can go about their daily lives as normal, and economic activity has been largely untouched, compared with pre-pandemic levels.
India is one of the four main countries in the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative started by the US and the world’s most populous democracy, having shared values with other democracies in the region, including Taiwan.
There are no official diplomatic ties between Taiwan and India, as Taiwan is still theoretically administered by the Republic of China and is not officially recognized as an independent country, and China has been trying its best to block Taiwan’s participation in the international community.
However, after the emergence of the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative, Taiwan and India have gradually become closer. They have not only started to deepen their cooperation in many fields from the economy to academia, their improved ties have also been reflected in geopolitics, with the two countries sharing the strategic interests of resisting the hegemonic expansion of China.
Indians have heavily criticized Chinese hegemonic attitudes due to rising tensions and clashes on the border with China last year, and even advocated playing the Taiwan card in more aspects. It is foreseeable that there would be even more possibilities and room for growth in relations between Taiwan and India.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken a two-pronged approach amid the COVID-19 crisis in India — through the Indian representative in Taiwan and the Taiwanese representative office in India, hoping to integrate resources as soon as possible to support the country’s fight against the pandemic.
However, compared with aid from governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have provided far less in donations than pre-pandemic levels.
In terms of NGOs in Taiwan, apart from Christian charity the Mustard Seed Mission — which sent food and supply packages to families hit by the pandemic in its service area in India earlier this year when the outbreak was slowing down — there has been no action to relieve the medical collapse and humanitarian crisis in India.
Compared with the scale and the speed of the relief and fundraising for disasters in China, such as the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the actions of Taiwan’s charities have been slow and modest, staying far behind the government’s actions.
As the saying goes: “Humanity knows no borders.” In the face of an unprecedented crisis in India, Taiwan’s charities and NGOs should be less discriminatory and should keep up with governments around the world in helping India.
Roger Wu works in the service industry in New Taipei City.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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