Degrees of Priority: Global Health or Derisory Politics

Mr. Iraj Kumar
Information Security Consultant, India
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Ms. Mihika Kothari
Student, Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat, India

Volume III, Issue III, 2020

The article aims to centre stage the Taiwan – China relation in light of the current COVID -19 pandemic that has ravaged the world. Despite its outstanding success and the support it offered the world during this global crisis, Taiwan’s exclusion in the WHO and its suspended participation in the WHO is a major blow to the global community in the fight against this global crisis. By delving into Taiwan’s relationship with China and the WHO, we aim to explore the current consequences of their historic contention with regards to their sovereignty. Taiwan’s successful fight against the pandemic highlights the critical role its government and citizenry played in controlling the spread of the disease. Taiwan’s astounding resourcefulness along with a critical importance given to learning from their past experiences provided the island nation the ability to stem the infection with an efficiency that has not been observed in any other country. Beijing’s paradoxical approach towards Taiwan in this fight against the virus, in contrast to two of its maritime neighbors, Indonesia and Singapore (both of whom have disputes in the South China Sea and ideological differences with China) have been observed in its pith. The article concludes with a glimmer of hope that the two Asian countries can set aside their political differences in humanity’s global fight against this epidemic.

 

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