The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) must determine the number and identity of people holding Republic of China (ROC) passports who left Wuhan during a temporary lifting of the city’s lockdown on Monday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators said yesterday.
The Wuhan City Government on Monday morning announced an easing of the lockdown for non-residents or people who need medical treatment elsewhere, but a lack of consent from Chinese Communist Party officials led to the order being rescinded four hours later.
There was speculation that the move had been planned — that some had been informed in advance — to allow Chinese elites and Taiwanese businesspeople with connections to leave the city, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said.
“We have witnessed China having some very chaotic situations in its fight against the outbreak and Beijing has not been transparent in reporting developments to the outside world,” Chao said. “So it is very concerning to think that Taiwanese businesspeople might have left during that four-hour period and traveled to another city so that they could fly to Taiwan.”
The problem is a lack of transparency and misleading information, as immigration officials at local airports would not see from incoming passengers’ ROC passports that they had been to Wuhan, allowing them to break through the nation’s defenses against the virus, Chao said.
Taiwanese visitors and businesspeople can only enter China by getting a Taiwan Compatriot Permit from the Chinese government, because Beijing does not recognize the ROC passport.
To contain the virus, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) mandated that evacuees from Wuhan travel on special chartered flights, which have medical personnel in protective clothing and masks who can test the passengers and conduct the required quarantine measures and other restrictions after their arrival in Taiwan.
However, those who might have left Wuhan on Monday and plan to arrive in Taiwan via another city would have circumvented the disease-prevention efforts.
“We demand that MAC officials get in touch with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to find out the number and identity of those holding ROC passports who left Wuhan during the temporary lifting of the lockdown. If some of them are not accounted for and not tested for the virus, they might penetrate our containment measures and spread the infection in Taiwan,” Chao said.
DPP Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) questioned the quick reversal of Wuhan lockdown in a post on social media: “[Wuhan] lifted the lockdown on the city at 11:30am, then at about 3pm, the lockdown was reimposed... How many people with connections left the city during this period?”
The move has also sparked discussion over the past couple of days among Taiwanese on social media, with some claiming that Taiwanese businesspeople and wealthy Chinese in Wuhan were informed in advance, possibly the day before, and told by Chinese officials to prepare to leave via another city so that they could return to Taiwan.
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