Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

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.