Taiwan’s successful handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is a model for the world,” announced the outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, in a statement on 19 January. With a population of nearly 24 million, the self-styled Republic of China (a de facto independent democracy, but claimed by the People’s Republic of China, which has never ruled over it) has, as it stands, managed to limit case numbers to 941 and deaths to only nine.
This is not accidental. Taiwan’s painful brush with severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003, when 181 people died, meant it was better prepared for a pandemic involving a highly transmissible and deadly virus than nearly all European nations or the US. I experienced this preparedness when flying from Taiwan Taoyuan International airport on 21 January 2020, where prominent signs with the characters for “Wuhan” directed arrivals from the stricken Chinese city through separate channels.
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