Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

President Tsai Ing-wen yesterday arrives at a news conference at the Presidential Office Building in Taipei at which she apologized for the handling of a COVID-19 cluster on board the navy supply ship Panshih.
Photo: CNA

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday apologized for the handling of a cluster of COVID-19 cases on board a navy ship that has left 28 crew infected, saying that as commander-in-chief, she holds ultimate responsibility for the military.

China’s COVID-19 narrative has been offset by the exemplary performance of Taiwan, which has employed neither an authoritarian system nor draconian controls, something that makes Beijing unhappy. Taiwan, despite having few diplomatic allies and no WHO membership because of the Chinese government, is doing better than its powerful rival across the Taiwan Strait.

China finds it difficult to digest that the neighboring democracy, which Beijing often sneers at and harasses, has outperformed it in the face of this challenge.