How Long Will President Tsai Drag on in the Issue of Ferrying Taiwan Residents Stranded in Wuhan?

 How Long Will President Tsai Drag on in the Issue of Ferrying Taiwan Residents Stranded in Wuhan?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

February 24, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The government has dispatched a plane to fetch the Taiwan passengers onboard the "Diamond Princess" cruise ship. At this time, it is inevitable that people have a bigger question: the government showed so much active concern for the 19 Taiwan passengers stranded in Japan, but nearly a thousand Taiwan residents are currently stranded in Wuhan. When will the Tsai government be ready to ferry them back? A government has claimed to be concerned about democracy and human rights, how could it bear to abandon its own people without any help?

Talking about the severity for risk in the situation, aren’t the Taiwan residents stranded in Wuhan at greater risk than those aboard the Diamond Princess? The Tsai government to date still insists on using the term "Wuhan pneumonia" instead of "COVID-19" adopted by the WHO in order to underscore that "Wuhan" is the fountainhead of the evil virus. However, have the high government echelons ever thought: What kind of love and care for the people manifested in the end by abandoning a thousand Taiwan residents in such a dangerous place?

President Tsai Ing-wen has delayed with abandon the return of nearly a thousand Taiwan residents stranded in Wuhan; in contrast with her emphasis on human rights or democracy is a greatest irony. In any democratic country, for the powers-that-be, for political strategy that uses the so-called "epidemic prevention momentum" as a pretext to block the return of its own nationals is self-destroying its own stance on humanitarianism.

In the onslaught of the epidemic, all countries scramble to care for their expats and nationals, demonstrating their own humanitarian concerns. Let us ask, when will the Tsai government be able to ferry back those Taiwan nationals who have been awaiting for so long?

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