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.
Within Taiwan’s education system exists a long-standing and deep-rooted culture of falsification. In the past month, a large number of “ghost signatures” — signatures using the names of deceased people — appeared on recall petitions submitted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) against Democratic Progressive Party legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶). An investigation revealed a high degree of overlap between the deceased signatories and the KMT’s membership roster. It also showed that documents had been forged. However, that culture of cheating and fabrication did not just appear out of thin air — it is linked to the
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Liu Shu-pin (劉書彬) asked Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) a question on Tuesday last week about President William Lai’s (賴清德) decision in March to officially define the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as a foreign hostile force. Liu objected to Lai’s decision on two grounds. First, procedurally, suggesting that Lai did not have the right to unilaterally make that decision, and that Cho should have consulted with the Executive Yuan before he endorsed it. Second, Liu objected over national security concerns, saying that the CCP and Chinese President Xi
China’s partnership with Pakistan has long served as a key instrument in Beijing’s efforts to unsettle India. While official narratives frame the two nations’ alliance as one of economic cooperation and regional stability, the underlying strategy suggests a deliberate attempt to check India’s rise through military, economic and diplomatic maneuvering. China’s growing influence in Pakistan is deeply intertwined with its own global ambitions. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative, offers China direct access to the Arabian Sea, bypassing potentially vulnerable trade routes. For Pakistan, these investments provide critical infrastructure, yet they also
RSS