Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) concession to end Beijing’s “zero COVID” policy is a rare accomplishment for any protest in China. While giving credit to the “Blank Paper Movement,” where the credit is due, there were indications that the COVID-19 pandemic in China had surged beyond belief. Xi might be simply leveraging on the protests to lift quarantine restrictions and disguise his inability to handle the pandemic.
The recent deaths of 21 retired professors and 12 retired staffers from Tsinghua University and Peking University within one month is the tip of the iceberg that betrays Beijing’s massive fatalities under the surface.
Infections and deaths are also exploding in other cities to the extent that medicine stocks are running out or are priced at hundreds of US dollars. The human plight might be exploding on an unimaginable scale.
China was among the first to develop a COVID-19 vaccine by means of an inactivated virus, which was the basis for vaccines against polio, as developed by Jonas Salk in the 1950s, and rabies and hepatitis A, for example. Inactivated virus vaccines cannot infect cells, but stimulate antibody-mediated responses, and therefore have weaker and shorter-lived immune response.
According to a study published in The Lancet and cited by The Economist earlier this year, one or two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine produced in China by Sinovac Biotech Ltd (科興) has much lower efficacy than Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine in all age groups in general, but among older people in particular.
However, a third dose of Sinovac’s vaccine showed about equal efficacy for the earlier variants, but does not protect as well against the Omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2, Bloomberg reported.
The sad truth is that national pride has led the Chinese government to reject outside help. China’s authoritarian model of combating the COVID-19 pandemic did not champion the protection of lives, especially those aged 65 and older.
By contrast, Taiwan leveraged its experience in containing the 2003 SARS outbreak by responding to the COVID-19 crisis with rapid measures, early deployment, prudent action and transparency. The latest data show that among 8.5 million infections, only 0.45 percent became seriously ill.
The lack of transparency in the authoritarian model of disease prevention has left many serious questions to be asked. What is the population percentage inoculated with three doses of vaccines? If the Chinese vaccines were effective, why was a strict lockdown necessary?
As many retirees, including a number of well-known people, died suddenly, what are the real-life efficacy rates among different age groups? Did China stock enough medicines to treat patients? How effective are the Chinese vaccines against serious symptoms, and what are the chances of mutated pathogens developing if many people become seriously ill?
This last question is critical, as Western vaccines might prove to be much less effective against variants that might develop. That means the COVID-19 pandemic could easily re-emerge around the world as a result.
Demanding the Chinese government to be open and transparent required a nationwide protest to protect lives in China, and beyond, which allowed the international community to better prepare and offer help. In fact, Washington said it would help China deal with the surge of COVID-19 infections if Beijing requests assistance.
The Chinese government must make a choice to either cover up the problem for the sake of national pride, or be open to outside help to save lives in an unprecedented crisis.
Only a democratic government that upholds human rights and freedom of speech can offer transparency. This pandemic can be an opportunity for China to grow into a democratic and free country, and to benefit people at home and abroad.
James J.Y. Hsu is a retired professor of physics.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finally listed on the legislator’s plenary agenda for Friday next week. The special defense budget was proposed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration in November last year to enhance the nation’s defense capabilities against external threats from China. However, the legislature, dominated by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), repeatedly blocked its review. The
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said on Monday that it would be announcing its mayoral nominees for New Taipei City, Yilan County and Chiayi City on March 11, after which it would begin talks with the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) to field joint opposition candidates. The KMT would likely support Deputy Taipei Mayor Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) as its candidate for New Taipei City. The TPP is fielding its chairman, Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), for New Taipei City mayor, after Huang had officially announced his candidacy in December last year. Speaking in a radio program, Huang was asked whether he would join Lee’s
RSS