How Long Could Chen Shi-chung and the Three Times Coupons Sustain the Pandemic Containment Myth?

How Long Could Chen Shi-chung and the Three Times Coupons Sustain the Pandemic Containment Myth?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

June 14, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Epidemic Command Center announced the reopening of all Taiwan; from President Tsai on down, various officials rushed around to put on a reopening show. Revitalization Three Times Coupons plus the subsidy program for domestic tourism, and advanced deployment of businesses offering all kinds of discounts, all these looked like prosperity will rocket sky-high. However, besides the reopening show is another reality. A wave of closing down in the manufacturing and service industries surged. Schools are also fearful that there will be a break in sources of students and the employment market has seen negative growth for the first time in 11 years, while college graduates will face the lowest manpower demand in a decade.

Taiwan is obsessed with pandemic control and prevention of a "sterilized room" standard, being unable to reopen its borders; at the same time, Taiwan, because of its anti-China stance, thinks nothing of sacrificing the cross-Strait exchange resources that existed before the pandemic. The Command Center said that the international pandemic situation might heat up before the end of the year. Before a vaccine is developed and commercialized, borders will not be completely reopened for one to two years. However, besides relying on Chen Shi-chung and the Three Times Coupons, and the vehement anti-China stance, the Tsai government should tell the people as early as possible how could Taiwan's pandemic containment myth be sustained?

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