The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered panic buying of masks in Taiwan. Starting on Feb. 6, the government centralized the distribution of masks and imposed a limit of two per person per week.

Despite the restrictions, Taiwan does not have the capacity to domestically produce sufficient masks to meet demand. In response, a campaign to persuade the public to forgo masks unless they really need them, called “I’m okay, you take one first,” has gone viral.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung, center, speaks at a news conference held by the Central Epidemic Command Center in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA

A Taiwanese man who returned from China’s Zhejiang Province late last month has been identified as the suspected source of infection for the nation’s first COVID-19 death, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said.

In contemporary China, profound political transformation can — and has — taken place in the absence of regime change or Western-style democratization.

The starkest example is the period of “reform and opening” that began in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平). Although Deng rejected multiparty elections, he fundamentally changed the direction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as well as the distribution of power within it.