Will There Be a Tomorrow on Cross-Strait Relations When It’s “The Day After Tomorrow” for the Epidemic?

 Will There Be a Tomorrow on Cross-Strait Relations When It’s “The Day After Tomorrow” for the Epidemic?

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 4, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

Taiwan has been clamoring to join the WHO, but in actions, it moves in the opposite direction of the WHO. The WHO named the new contagious disease as COVID-19, or novel corona pneumonia for short, to replace "Wuhan pneumonia", which carries a discriminatory connotation. In the entire world, only Taiwan’s Epidemic Command Center and some local media outlets persist in using Wuhan pneumonia; this is incongruent with Taiwan’s appeals clamoring that it should be accepted into the international health system.

The most ridiculous is that nearly 1,000 Taiwan compatriots are still stranded in Wuhan because of cross-Strait political maneuverings. The government has stopped listening to their painful complaints and sorrowful requests; even some netizens voiced their objections to their returning home. The kindheartedness and love of Taiwanese seem to have been completely shaded by the selfishness and cold-bloodedness of the politicians.

Up to this moment, variables still abound as to whether the new corona pneumonia could be efficaciously halted, but because of political maneuverings, Taiwan’s economy has suffered heavy losses; the social costs formed by anxiety due to panic can hardly be calculated, making the already highly-strained cross-Strait relations even escalate to people-to-people hatred. Some say that "after the PRC has marched out of the epidemic disaster, it would be the beginning of our disaster"; this is absolutely not what the people of Taiwan would like to see, nor does it conform to cross-Strait interests. If the two sides of the Strait could jettison political confrontation, returning to health as a profession and humanitarian caring, the two sides could still turn around the development of relations in the future.

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