Run For Your Life

Countries evacuating nationals from Chinese coronavirus areas
Reuters

A growing number of countries around the world are evacuating or planning to evacuate diplomatic staff and citizens from parts of China hit by the new coronavirus.

Following are some countries’ evacuation plans, and how they aim to manage the health risk from those who are returning.
- Kazakhstan, which has previously evacuated 83 from Wuhan, will send two planes to China on Feb. 10 and Feb. 12 to evacuate its citizens. Out of 719 Kazakhs remaining in China, 391 have asked to be repatriated.
- A second evacuation flight is bringing back another 174 Singaporeans and their family members from Wuhan to the city-state on Feb. 9, Singapore’s foreign ministry said.
- Thirty Filipinos returned to the Philippines on Feb. 9 from Wuhan, the Department of Foreign Affairs said. The returning passengers and a 10-member government team will be quarantined for 14 days.
- Britain’s final evacuation flight from Wuhan, carrying more than 200 people, landed at a Royal Air Force base in central England on Feb. 9. A plane carrying 83 British and 27 European Union nationals from Wuhan landed in Britain last week.
- The 34 Brazilians evacuated from Wuhan landed in Brazil on Feb. 9, where they will begin 18 days of quarantine.
- Two planes with about 300 passengers, mostly U.S. citizens, took off from Wuhan on Feb. 6 bound for the United States -- the third group of evacuees from the heart of the coronavirus outbreak, the U.S. State Department said.
- Uzbekistan has evacuated 251 people from China and quarantined them on arrival in Tashkent, the Central Asian nation’s state airline said on Feb. 6.
- A plane load of New Zealanders, Australians and Pacific Islanders evacuated from Wuhan arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on Feb. 5, officials said.
- Taiwan has evacuated the first batch of an estimated 500 Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan.
- Italy flew back 56 nationals from Wuhan to Rome on Feb. 3. The group will spend two weeks in quarantine in a military hospital, the government said.
- Saudi Arabia has evacuated 10 students from Wuhan, Saudi state television reported on Feb. 2.
- Indonesia’s government flew 243 Indonesians from Hubei on Feb. 2 and placed them under quarantine at a military base on an island northwest of Borneo.
- South Korea flew 368 people home on a charter flight that arrived on Jan. 31. A second chartered flight departed Seoul for Wuhan on Jan. 31, with plans to evacuate around 350 more South Korean citizens.
- Japan chartered a third flight to repatriate Japanese people, which arrived from Wuhan on Jan. 31, bringing the number of repatriated nationals to 565.
- Spain’s government is working with China and the European Union to repatriate its nationals.
- Canada evacuated its first group of 176 citizens from Wuhan to an Ontario air force base early on Feb. 5, according to the Globe and Mail newspaper. The country’s foreign minister said a second group should arrive later on Feb. 5 after changing planes in Vancouver. All evacuees will be quarantined on the base for two weeks.
- Russia said it would begin moving its citizens out of China via its Far Eastern region on Feb. 1, regional authorities said. It plans to evacuate more than 600 Russian citizens currently in Hubei, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said. A first Russian military plane took off on Feb. 4 to evacuate Russian citizens from Wuhan, the RIA news agency reported.
- The Netherlands is preparing the voluntary evacuation of 20 Dutch nationals and their families from Hubei, Foreign Minister Stef Blok said. The Netherlands is finalising arrangements with EU partners and Chinese authorities.
- France has evacuated some nationals from Wuhan and said it would place the passengers in quarantine. It said it would first evacuate nationals without symptoms and then those showing symptoms at a later, unspecified date.
- Swiss authorities said they hope to have about 10 citizens join the French evacuation of nationals from China.
- A plane brought 138 Thai nationals home from Wuhan last week. They will spend two weeks in quarantine.

Taipei lashes out at vile and evil China for blocking Taiwan’s access to the World Health Organization

• Taiwan said China was vile and evil for blocking Taipei’s access to the WHO amid the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.
• As of Tuesday, Taiwan has reported 11 cases of the made in China coronvirus.

By Huileng Tan

A woman wearing a protective mask prays at the Lungshan temple during the fourth day of the Lunar New year of the Rat in Taipei in January 28, 2020.

Taiwan has become more and more vocal in recent days about its exclusion from World Health Organization meetings.
It comes as the world grapples to contain the growing number of Chinese coronavirus cases that has killed more than 560 people worldwide, most of whom died in China.
Due to Beijing’s objections, Taiwan has been denied membership to most international organizations including the WHO — a United Nations agency. 

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Joanne Ou, on Thursday slammed China and the WHO for providing wrong information about the number of Chinese coronavirus cases in Taiwan. 

The World Health Organization reported Tuesday that the island had 13 cases, when there were only 10 at that time.
Ou blamed Beijing for the error. 

“This was wrong information that was provided by China which created the mistake,” she said.
Taiwan currently has 13 confirmed cases of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak, believed to have originated from China's biowarfare labs of Wuhan in province of Hubei. 

There are more than 28,000 infected people in mainland China alone, and all but two who have died were in China.

Putting political considerations over people’s health and safety; this, basically, is extremely vile.                       --  Joanne Ou, TAIWAN’S FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN

Earlier this week, Ou criticized Beijing for blocking Ta
ipei’s access to WHO, saying its isolation makes the island vulnerable to the deadly Chinese virus. 

All but two of the deaths occurred outside mainland China.
“Disease knows no national boundaries and there should be no loopholes in global epidemic prevention,” Ou said in Mandarin at the press conference on Tuesday, according to a CNBC translation. 

“Putting political considerations over people’s health and safety; this, basically, is extremely vile.”
Taiwan Affairs Office — an administrative agency under mainland China — warned on Thursday that Taipei should not use the the Chinese epidemic as a pretext to seek independence.
As the Chinese virus continued to spread, Taiwan complained it had not been receiving firsthand information about the virus, vital for the protection and well-being of it people. 

On its part, China reportedly told the WHO in Geneva that it has shared latest information about the coronavirus outbreak with Taiwan on a timely basis.
Ou disputed Beijing’s claims and said Taiwan has had very limited information, and instead relied on friendly countries such as the U.S. and Japan for information.
Taiwan participated in the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s annual policy meeting, from 2009 to 2016.
But relations between Beijing and Taipei have cooled, especially since Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party took office in 2016. 

Tsai won a second term in office after sweeping to victory in January’s presidential election.
Taiwan’s diplomatic allies have been speaking out for its inclusion into the WHO, but Taipei has been left with a dwindling list of allies as various nations switch allegiances to Beijing, and cut diplomatic ties with the island.

Travel implications for Taiwanese
Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu on Sunday the World Health Organization’s listing of Taiwan as a province under China has created practical problems.
Countries like Italy and Vietnam suspended flights to and from China, and included Taiwan on the list of destinations where flights were halted. 

Myanmar also directed domestic carriers to suspend charter flights between the city of Mandalay and Taipei alongside flights to some cities in China.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese are facing problems after Bangladesh stopped issuing visa on-arrival to Chinese on Sunday, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported.
Taipei said its diplomats are working hard on the ground to solve such issues.
“Cases like what’s happening with Italy also show that the interests of the Taiwanese people are negatively affected by the WHO’s decision to list Taiwan as part of China,” said Wu on Sunday. “Hundreds, if not thousands, of passengers who got caught up at the airports will not be able to get compensation from airlines, and certainly not from the WHO.”
On Tuesday, Taiwan evacuated the first batch of Taiwanese stranded in Wuhan, which is under lockdown in efforts to contain the spread of the Chinese coronavirus. 

Taiwan had complained that China was not responding to requests to fly out Taiwanese, even as Beijing approved similar requests by other governments.

Made in China Pandemic

Beijing's behavior confirms how bad the brand truly is
By James Jay Carafano

Long before the Chinese coronavirus made international headlines, China’s Communist Party, which rules the country with unchallenged authority, had an image problem.
Image has always been a key element of Beijing’s plan to rise to global greatness. 

They’ve worked assiduously to carve a reputation as an unstoppable power wading well into the midst of world affairs.
Today, however, that carefully crafted image is badly tattered. 

It's worse than it was just one year ago when nations that eag
erly participated in China’s Belt and Road Initiative began to realize that Chinese “aid” was a two-edged sword.
No one has done more to damage China’s international reputation more than Beijing itself. 

Hopefully, the Chinese coronavirus outbreak will help more and more governments recognize the truth behind the image: The Chinese Communist Party is not to be trusted.
To be fair, the Chinese response to the coronavirus thus far has been better than its response to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Southern China in 2002. 

Still, that’s not saying much.
The SARS response was abysmal. 

China moved slowly, concealing the seriousness of the disease for months. 

As a result, the illness spread to more than 8,000 people in more than two dozen countries. 

Nearly 800 died.
While China has been at least somewhat more forthcoming and preemptive in its efforts to corral the coronavirus, its performance leaves much to be desired.

Let’s start with how the virus began.
The outbreak has been traced back to the Hunan Seafood Market in Wuhan China. 

It is a "wet market,” a labyrinth of ramshackle stalls hawking live fish, meat and wild animals.
For years, public health authorities have warned Beijing that such markets can be incubators for transmitting new deadly viruses. 

Many of the species in the Chinese omnivore diet are zoonotic; they carry diseases that easily transmit from animals to humans. 

SARS was an animal virus. 

Yet even after the SARS outbreak, Beijing failed to systematically address these risks.
Chinese officials also proved incredibly inept at quickly and transparently sharing critical information and recruiting international support.
As the Chinese coronavirus spreads, the people of Taiwan people stand in close proximity — and deadly peril. 

Yet China is blocking Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization. 

Clearly, Beijing prioritizes denying Taiwan international legitimacy over saving lives and preventing the spread of the disease. 

That’s not a smart look for China.

If the outbreak of the Chinese coronavirus had just been another bad day in global health, the Chinese Communist Party might have gotten a pass. 

It is not. 

Bungling this global health emergency is only the latest in a long line of missteps.
In 2017, the 19th Communist Party Congress held a national “coming out” party. 

Xi Jinping declared it was a “new era” — not just for China, but for the world. 

Not only was China now in the top echelon of world powers, but China was retooling the world to march to Beijing’s tune.
Critics saw this declaration as an overt signal that China intended to be a disruptive force on the global stage, not a benign influence and not just a big checkbook as many had hoped.
The critics were right.
The checkbook was most obvious in China’s Belt and Road initiative, which encompasses a worldwide network of infrastructure and investment projects. 

But nations that gladly took the checks are waking up to the fact that there’s no such thing as free yuan. 

Belt and Road has been accused of every ill, from spreading corruption to laying debt traps.
On the human rights front, Beijing’s policies have been nothing short of a public relations disaster. 

It has harassed the Dalai Lama. 

Throughout the 2017 Rohingya refugee crisis, it displayed complete indifference to Myanmar’s reprehensible expulsion policies and offered no support or assistance to Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken neighbor struggling to provide refuge for the displaced Rohingya. 

Beijing has now graduated to imprisoning millions of its own citizens, Uighurs — a massive abuse of human rights that has garnered global condemnation.
And don’t forget its mishandling of protests in Hong Kong. 

Rather than affirm its commitment to the “One China, two systems” agreement it signed when the island was turned over from British control, the regime has done the opposite. 

Beijing’s behavior is widely viewed as reneging on its commitments to the people of Hong Kong.
None of this plays well internationally. 

Taiwan’s recent elections were seen as a strong rebuke of Beijing. 

Despite reports of Chinese meddling, some of the mainland government’s staunchest critics were swept into office.
Beijing has also been criticized for pressuring international organizations for its own ends: for example, filling United Nations posts with Chinese officials loyal to the Chinese Communist Party and interfering in organizations such as Interpol and the International Civil Aviation Organization to forward its own interests and isolate Taiwan.
The Chinese government has also conducted a heavy-handed campaign to bribe and bully countries in Latin America to break diplomatic relations with Taiwan.
China’s long list of aggressive behavior is wearing on the international community. 

Increasingly, other countries do not trust China. 

That lack of trust can have severe consequences for Beijing — from limiting foreign purchases of Huawei’s new 5G technology to reducing Chinese money and influence on college campuses.

US lawmakers push Beijing puppet WHO to recognize Taiwan as independent state as Chinese coronavirus outbreak continues

BY J. EDWARD MORENO

U.S. lawmakers are pushing legislation that would work toward granting Taiwan recognition in the World Health Organization (WHO) in light of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak that has left Taiwan subject to flight bans and limited information.
The WHO — a branch of the United Nations — has relayed communication on the virus to China, which considers Taiwan a Chinese territory with an illegitimate independent government. 

The island’s status as a nation is a matter of international disagreement: the U.S., Japan, Canada and the European Union all recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state, while the UN and Chinese satellites consider Taiwan a province of China. Taiwanese officials have received little information on the virus from WHO while also struggling to communicate with Chinese officials as they attempted to evacuate Taiwanese citizens from Wuhan, where the virus originated. 

Taiwan has 10 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and on Monday night quarantined 247 people repatriated to the island after being stranded in Wuhan.
According to Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu, flights to Taiwan from Vietnam and Italy were canceled last week based on information that grouped Taiwan as part of China. 

Flights from Vietnam were restored, but Taiwan is still “working through all diplomatic channels” to restore flights from Italy.
Wu argues that the WHO's choice to exclude Taiwan from the organization puts the health of Taiwanese citizens at risk. 
“While we are still going through our own channels and through like-minded friends to reason with the WHO to right its wrong, I would like to publicly call upon the WHO to recognize the simple fact that Taiwan is Taiwan and it is not part of the [People's Republic of China]," Wu told press on Sunday. 

"Taiwan is not under China's jurisdiction; Taiwan's and China's health are administered by separate and independent health authorities, and Taiwan's and China's flight information regions are administered by separate and independent civil aviation administrations."
“This is such a simple reality that the WHO should never have missed it," he continued. 

"Again, I call upon the WHO to correct its gross mistake.”
Taiwan was recognized by the WHO under the name “Chinese Taipei” from 1997 to 2016, when pro-sovereignty Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took power, leading China to pressure the UN to subject Taiwan to the “one China principle.” 

The Chinese coronavirus outbreak comes less than a month after Taiwan reelected Tsai by a large margin, sending a message to mainland China about where the Taiwanese electorate stands on the issue of sovereignty.
Last month Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) introduced legislation that would direct the State Department to develop a strategy that would give Taiwan recognition in the WHO. 

The bill passed the House unanimously and is currently in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 
“Taiwan’s exclusion from the WHO puts the world at risk,” Yoho wrote in an op-ed in the Taipei Times. 

“That is why I have called for the re-establishment of Taiwan’s observer status on numerous occasions.”
Last week, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote a letter to the State Department asking it to push for Taiwan’s inclusion in the WHO. 

Days later, seven GOP senators — several of whom are also members of the Foreign Relations Committee — penned a letter to the WHO asking them to recognize Taiwan as an independent state.

Today @SenTomCotton @SenRubioPress @JohnCornyn @JimInhofe @SenatorRomney @SenTedCruz and I are calling on the @WHO to grant Taiwan observer status in light of the coronavirus outbreak to better protect global health and security. pic.twitter.com/dogp9EvOCR

                                — Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) January 31, 2020

“The relationship between the United States and Taiwan is a partnership between two vibrant democracies based on shared values and vision,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner in which he argued for U.S. assistance to Taiwan in trade and defense.
The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.

The Chinese coronavirus lays bare WHO's abject obedience to China

The global body is  complicit in China’s flawed handling of the Chinese virus's outbreak by failing to act fast to halt pandemic 

By Peter Beaumont

A police officer uses a thermometer to take a driver’s temperature at a checkpoint in Wuhan. 

On social media this week the insults were flying thick and fast, some tinged with racism, but all with a common theme: how the World Health Organization, and its head, the incompetent Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was effectively doing the bidding of the Chinese government in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak.
It is a charge that has also been expressed in less offensive terms elsewhere in columns and articles, some of which have focused on whether, in praising China’s response to the deadly Chinese coronavirus outbreak during a visit to Beijing, the Beijing puppet Ethiopian allowed himself to become complicit in China’s flawed handling of the outbreak in its early days?

In some respects, it is a hoary old paradox, familiar to many international bodies and NGOs. 

How – when dealing with a health crisis or a humanitarian disaster – you are limited in the choice and nature of your partners in the place where it is occurring, and the limitations they impose.
But if the politics of such accommodations is always uncomfortable, the Chinese coronavirus outbreak encapsulates in a stark fashion a number of difficult issues.
Above all, it asks how the UN’s international health diplomacy, confronted with a pandemic where a timely and accurate flow of information is crucial, should interact with one of the world’s most criminal states.
Looming above all else is the fact that China is a country whose trajectory under Xi Jinping has been to become more, not less, authoritarian, marked by mass internment camps for Uighurs, a growing internet crackdown and its harsh response to street protests in Hong Kong.
There seems little doubt either that China’s bureaucratic culture of control and secrecy, including the local government’s efforts to clamp down on the information emerging about the disease in the first weeks of the epidemic, contributed to its spread in December and the first weeks of January.


Tâi Siáu-káu (台痟狗) ㄊㄇㄉ Taiwan @TimMaddog
TaCo editorial cartoon: World Health Organization'a (@WHO) words vs. the truth about China (dead people in the streets) .http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/photo/2020/02/03/2008185035 …#2019nCoV#WuhanCoronavirus#武漢肺炎

4
12:56 PM - Feb 3, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy


Interposed into the midst of all this has been the pro-China WHO – and the Tedros – a relationship complicated by the fact that China is a major donor to the world health body. 

The mix of health and international politics has been underlined by the exclusion of Taiwan from discussions even after the coronavirus spread there.
The argument about how the WHO has negotiated the complexities boils down to several key questions.
The first is whether the organisation should have pushed harder for Beijing to be more forthcoming when evidence of a new form of coronavirus first emerged, but before the scale of the outbreak was fully acknowledged. 

And whether the head of the UN body should have been so degraded in praising the response of a country that unsettles so many for its secrecy and rights violations.
In particular, the fraught politics of the WHO declaring the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) has once again come under the spotlight in the same way it did during the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Some of those most critical have parsed Xi’s meeting with Tedros – and Xi’s declared hope that the UN body would assess the “epidemic situation in an objective, just, calm and reasonable way” – as pressure from Beijing to ensure WHO would refrain from designating the epidemic a global health emergency to protect China’s economy.
Although that didn’t happen, the WHO’s advice – contrary to that of many governments – is that it still “advises against the application of any restrictions of international traffic based on the information currently available on this event”.
And on this front some are pointing to a startling contradiction: how the discredited UN body has praised the extreme internal travel restrictions in China while criticising other countries for implementing their own travel measures.

Taiwan confirms case of killer Chinese coronavirus as six patients have now died from SARS-like infection in China as more than 300 patients across Asia have now caught the deadly illness

• Chinese officials yesterday confirmed the virus has spread between humans
• Fifteen healthcare workers have caught the respiratory virus, figures show
• A total of 304 people in Asia have now tested positive for the unnamed virus
• Three other countries have reported cases -- Thailand, Japan and South Korea
• Three more deaths have been announced today, taking the death toll to six.

By STEPHEN MATTHEWS

A total of 304 people are confirmed to have caught the illness, with another 54 cases suspected and more than 900 people under observation (Pictured: The most recently available breakdown of where cases have been diagnosed).

Taiwan has confirmed its first case of the lethal Chinese coronavirus, which has killed six and sickened more than 300 people.
Health officials in the Asian territory announced a woman, thought to be around 50 years old, had caught the never-seen-before virus.

She is currently in hospital receiving treatment, according to local media.
It comes after the mayor of Wuhan – at the centre of the outbreak – announced two more victims of the lethal SARS-like infection this morning.
A total of 304 people are confirmed to have caught the virus, with another 54 cases suspected and more than 900 people under observation.Australia and the Philippines have also reported suspected cases of the coronavirus, which China yesterday admitted has spread between humans.
The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting later in the week to discuss the outbreak, which has already spread to Thailand, South Korea, Japan and now Taiwan.
Fifteen healthcare workers have caught the respiratory virus while treating patients. 

Cases have soared six-fold in the space of a few days.
Public health officials in the UK have issued advice to the NHS on how to deal with potential cases – but renowned virologists say the outbreak is 'unlikely to go global'.
Stock markets in China and Hong Kong dipped today amid fears tourists will refrain from travelling, despite people being urged not to panic. 

But shares in firms which make surgical face masks have surged as investors expect sales to rise as people seek to protect themselves.

Workers at Almaty International Airport in Kazakhstan are using thermal scanners to detect travellers from China who may have symptoms of the coronavirus sweeping Asia
Malaysian officials use thermal imaging scanners and cameras to check passengers for fevers upon their arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Malaysia is one of many countries that have stepped up their passenger screening, with airport workers screening travellers for symptoms of the virus
Pictured: A close-up of travellers on the thermal imaging camera at Kuala Lumpur International Airport
South Korean cleaners prepare to disinfect the facilities at the customs, immigration and quarantine area at Incheon International Airport
Officials at Taiwan's Center for Disease Control use thermal scanners to screen passengers arriving on a flight from China's Wuhan province
A child wears a facemask at Daxing international airport in Beijing as he heads home for the Lunar New Year
The outbreak is believed to have started late last month among people connected to a seafood market in Wuhan, where all six fatalities have happened
An official uses an infrared thermometer on a traveler at a health screening checkpoint at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. Wuhan is at the centre of the outbreak
Staff in biohazard suits hold a metal stretcher by the in-patient department of Wuhan Medical Treatment Centre, where patients are being treated for the new coronavirus
Quarantine workers spray disinfect at Incheon International Airport in South Korea. South Korea confirmed its first case on January 20 after a 35-year-old woman arriving at Seoul’s Incheon airport tested positive for the virus.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THIS OUTBREAK SO FAR? 
A total of 304 people are confirmed to have caught the unnamed coronavirus, which has never been seen before. 

Six patients have died.
Most of the cases have occurred in Wuhan, a city in Hubei province home to 11 million people. 

But patients have been diagnosed across China, including in Beijing and Shanghai.
The coronavirus, which is from the same family as SARS, has also spread to South Korea, Thailand, Japan and Taiwan.
Chinese officials yesterday confirmed the virus has spread between humans, suggesting it can be passed through coughs and sneezes.
The outbreak is believed to have started late last month among people connected to a seafood market in Wuhan, which has since been shut.
China is entering its busiest travel period due to the Lunar New Year, which sees many people travelling back to their home town or village.
Virologists fear the increased travel that will happen over the holidays will cause a surge in cases.
So where have cases been recorded?
IN CHINA
Hubei province, 270 cases, 6 deaths
Guangdong province, 14 cases
Zhejiang province, 1 case
Shanghai, 6 cases
Beijing, 5 cases
Tianjin, 2 cases
Zhengzhou, 1 case

ABROAD
Thailand, 2 cases
South Korea, 1 case
Japan, 1 case
Taiwan, 1 case

The outbreak is believed to have started late last month among people connected to a seafood market in Wuhan, where all six fatalities have happened.
State media reported on a fourth victim this morning – an 89-year-old is home to 11 million people, later revealed there had been two more deaths – a 66-year-old man, known only as Li, and a 48-year-old woman, known only as Yin. 

Both died from multiple organ failure. Zhou Xianwang said there has been a total of 258 cases in Wuhan. 

Twelve cases have been recorded elsewhere in Hubei province, where Wuhan is the capital.
Other cases have been confirmed today in Tianjin – a port city just outside of Beijing, as well as one in Zhejiang province, one in Zhengzhou and four more in Shanghai.
Wuhan officials have today said they will pay for all medical costs for patients infected with the virus.
Professor John Oxford, a virologist at Queen Mary College, admitted he was 'quaking in my shoes' over the potential spread of the virus that could happen over the Chinese New Year.
He told LBC: 'None of us have faced a new virus faced with so many people in a community travelling around. That's what's going to happen in China at the end of the week. Once they are close together in taxis or small rooms, then there may be a problem.'

And Professor Oxford added: 'The only way to stop it is physical cleaning and social distance --keeping away from people.'
Locals have made more than four million trips by train, road and air since January 10 in the annual travel rush for the most important holiday in the country.
The transport peak season will last until February 18 and see three billion trips made within China, according to official statistics.
Australian officials today announced a traveller had been placed in quarantine with symptoms of the virus after returning home from a trip to China.

Two patients in southern China have caught the virus from infected family members, according to local media. Pictured, Chinese residents wear masks in Wuhan.

China reported on January 20 the mysterious virus had spread across the country from Wuhan. Pictured, medical staff at Jinyintan hospital, Wuhan.

CHINESE TOUR FIRMS OFFER FREE CANCELLATIONS ON TRAVEL BOOKINGS 
Chinese travel booking platforms are offering free cancellations on bookings made for Wuhan amid mounting fears over the coronavirus outbreak.
The firms offering customers the cancellations include Trip.com, Alibaba Group's Fliggy, Meituan Dianping and Qunar.com.
The travel booking platforms said that Chinese civil aviation and railway authorities had still to set a special cancellation policy.
But the firms added that they would try to meet the needs of customers wanting to cancel their trips.
China is entering its busiest travel period due to the Lunar New Year, which sees many people travelling back to their home town or village
The holiday is a high season for tourism and retail industries in China and overseas, but fears of the outbreak may mean many opt to stay home.

The man is being kept at his home in Brisbane as he awaits test results for the virus.

Earlier tests were inconclusive, Queensland health chiefs said.
The suspected case prompted Prime Minister Scott Morrison to warn Australians travelling to China to 'exercise a high degree of caution' in China’s Wuhan area.
The authorities in Wuhan are taking their own precautions and are using infrared thermometers to scan people from a distance to try and pick out possible cases.
Scanners have been put in place at airports, railway stations and coach stops around the city, which is home to some 11million people.
Medics have also been filmed reportedly scanning people's heads to take their temperatures on-board a flight leaving Wuhan on Monday.
The Philippines also announced today that it was investigating its first potential case of the coronavirus.
A five-year-old child arrived in the country on January 12 from Wuhan and has since been hospitalised with flu symptoms.
While the child tested positive for a virus, authorities in Manila said they were not sure if it was the same one that has killed four people in China.
Over the weekend, 136 fresh infections were reported in Wuhan, bringing the total number of cases China has confirmed to more than 200
The majority of patients have been traced to the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market (pictured)
Ash Shorley, 32, is fighting for his life in Thailand and is feared to be the first Western victim of the coronavirus sweeping across China
Mr Shorley is in critical condition in a hospital in Phuket after being struck down with the pneumonia-like lung infection while visiting Koh Phi Phi island.

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE NEW CHINESE VIRUS? What is this virus?The virus has been identified as a new type of coronavirus.
Coronaviruses are a large family of pathogens, most of which cause mild respiratory infections such as the common cold.
But coronaviruses can also be deadly. 

SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, is caused by a coronavirus and killed hundreds of people in China and Hong Kong in the early 2000s.

Why hasn’t it been named yet?
The virus has not been named, although commonly goes by ‘nCoV2019’, which stands for novel (new) coronavirus 2019.
When a virus emerges slowly, as this one has, scientists have to work quickly to understand its severity, how it is spread and how deadly it is.
Jeremy Farrar, a specialist in infectious disease epidemics and director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, said he thinks the virus will be named over the coming weeks and months because it is the ‘least important decision at the moment’.

What symptoms does it cause?
Its symptoms are typically a fever, cough and trouble breathing, but some patients have developed pneumonia, a potentially life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the small air sacs in the lungs.
People carrying the novel coronavirus may only have mild symptoms, such as a sore throat. 

They may assume they have a common cold and not seek medical attention, experts fear.

How is it detected?
When the outbreak started in December 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said hospitals across the city had treated a 'successive series of patients with unexplained pneumonia'.
After investigations, a never-before-seen strain of coronavirus was identified and reported on January 9.
The virus's genetic sequencing was released by scientists in China to the rest of the world to enable other countries to quickly diagnose potential new cases. 

This helps other countries respond quickly to disease outbreaks.
To contain the virus, airports are detecting infected people with temperature checks. 

But as with every virus, it has an incubation period, meaning detection is not always possible because symptoms have not appeared yet.
The incubation period of nCov2019 is not known. 

Research by Imperial College London suggested there is a 10-day window between someone being infected and detected, based on the evidence so far.

Can it kill?
Three people have so far died after testing positive for the virus. 

The first two patients who died suffered other health problems, so it is possible the virus is more lethal in vulnerable people.
The first patient, a 61-year-old-man, had abdominal tumours and chronic liver disease. 

The second, who was 69, had severe cardiomyopathy – a heart condition, abnormal kidney function, and seriously damaged organs.
Details about the third death have not been revealed.

How is it spread?
Investigations have focused on animals as the source because the majority of the first infected patients in Wuhan were traced to the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, which has been shut down since January 1.
On January 14, the World Health Organization said there is some 'limited' human-to-human transmission of the virus.
Professor Zhong Nanshan, a scientist at China’s National Health Commission, said human-to-human transmission is 'affirmative', in a press conference on January 20.
Two patients in southern China caught the virus from infected family members, according to local media. 

They had not visited Wuhan.

'The child is considered a person under investigation,' Philippine health secretary Francisco Duque told a press briefing in Manila.
Samples from the child were sent to a laboratory in Australia for further testing and authorities are awaiting the results.
The child had a fever, throat irritation and a cough before arriving in the central city of Cebu with a parent, the health department said.
Three other travellers from China were checked by authorities at another airport, but they did not show symptoms that corresponded with the coronavirus.
Increased control measures have been enforced at many places, with scientists still uncertain of the outbreak’s nature and mode of transmission.
But Professor Zhong Nanshan, of China's National Health Commission, said human-to-human transmission was 'affirmative' in a press conference yesterday.
'Currently, it can be said it is affirmative that there is the phenomenon of human-to-human transmission,' he said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
Two patients in southern China caught the virus from infected family members, and had not visited a seafood market thought to be at the centre of the outbreak.
Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market has been closed and under investigation since January 1 as scientists scramble to determine where the virus has come from.
In the same interview with CCTV, Professor Nanshan said 14 medical workers had been infected after treating a patient with the coronavirus.
Details about the healthcare workers have not yet come to light and only been discussed by Professor Nanshan.
A total of 222 people in Asia have now tested positive for the virus, which marks a sharp increase from the 48 on January 17. 
The outbreak has spread within China, with cases recorded in Guangdong province, as well as Beijing and Shanghai.
People in China have been urged not to panic and to try and enjoy the festive season.
A piece in Chinese newspaper the Global Times said on Sunday: 'The entire Chinese society should be vigilant but should not be in panic. We should make the upcoming Spring Festival happy and peaceful, and also pay close attention to every link where the pneumonia may increase transmission.'
Three other countries have also reported cases of the virus -- Thailand, Japan and South Korea.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier an animal source seemed to be 'the most likely primary source' of the virus.
Jeremy Farrar, a specialist in infectious disease epidemics and director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, raised concerns about the number of people travelling through Wuhan.
He said: 'Wuhan is a major hub and with travel being a huge part of the fast approaching Chinese New Year, the concern level must remain high.
'There is more to come from this outbreak.'
He added that coughing is the 'quickest way to spread an infection around the world'. 'Whenever you get something new happening in humans, especially when it is spread by coughing, it is always a worry. It could get worse, it could get better – but you have to plan for it getting worse,' Mr Farrar told MailOnline.
China is entering its busiest travel period due to the Lunar New Year, which sees many people travelling back to their home town or village.
Countries including Japan, Australia and the US have adopted screening measures for those arriving from China due to concerns about a global outbreak like that caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which spread from China to more than a dozen countries in 2002 and 2003 and killed nearly 800 people.
An analysis from Imperial College London last week estimated the number of cases in Wuhan was probably around 1,700 – but could even be as high as 4,500.
The team did not look at how the virus may be transmitted, but said 'past experience with SARS and MERS-CoV outbreaks of similar scale suggests currently self-sustaining human-to-human transmission should not be ruled out.'
South Korea confirmed its first case on January 20 after a 35-year-old woman arriving at Seoul’s Incheon airport tested positive for the virus. She had been in Wuhan last week.

On Tuesday afternoon Mr Morrison urged Australians to 'exercise a high degree of caution'

Footage on social media purports to show medics in hazardous material suits checking Chinese passengers one by one with thermometers. The clip is reported to be filmed on an Air China flight from Wuhan to Macau on January 12 after the plane arrived at the airport in Macau.

Last week, one case was confirmed in Japan and two in Thailand, meaning the total number of confirmed cases outside of China now sits at four.
A British tourist fighting for his life in Thailand is feared to be the first Western victim, but this has not been confirmed.
Ash Shorley, 32, is in critical condition in a hospital in Phuket after being struck down with a lung infection while visiting Koh Phi Phi island.
Mr Shorley had to be transported to hospital by a specialised seaplane because his lung had collapsed and he could not cope with high altitude travel.
Doctors revealed his symptoms were consistent with the Chinese coronavirus. 

He has been in hospital for nearly a month.Public Health England maintains that the risk of travellers becoming infected is 'very low', and 'low' for those travelling specifically to Wuhan.
Dr Nick Phin, a deputy director at PHE, said: 'We have issued advice to the NHS and are keeping the situation under constant review.
'People travelling to Wuhan should maintain good hand, respiratory and personal hygiene and should avoid visiting animal and bird markets or people who are ill with respiratory symptoms.
'Individuals should seek medical attention if they develop respiratory symptoms within 14 days of visiting Wuhan, either in China or on their return to the UK, informing their health service prior to their attendance about their recent travel to the city.'

A plague to make panic go viral: 
As the Chinese coronavirus claims more victims, top historian PETER FRANKOPAN examines the lesson from the past that has a chilling resonance today
The nightmare is all too real. 

A man arrives at a health centre, complaining of a sore throat, fever and headache. 

Another person arrives soon after; then another. 

By lunchtime, there are dozens; within a week, hundreds.
The winter months usually see an onset of influenza. 

But this time far more people than normal are infected.
That is not the only strange thing. 

Usually, the flu virus flourishes among the young and the old, with less robust immune systems. 

But those turning up to see the doctor are primarily in the prime of life, aged 20 to 40, who usually have no problem seeing off what is usually a seasonal bug.

FACT BOX TITLE
December 31 2019: The WHO China Country Office was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. 

Around 44 suspected cases were reported in the month of December.
January 1 2020: A seafood market was closed for environmental sanitation and disinfection after being closely linked with the patients.
January 5 2020: Doctors ruled out severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as being the cause of the virus, as well as bird flu, Middle East respiratory syndrome and adenovirus. 

Meanwhile, Hong Kong reported
January 9 2020: A preliminary investigation identified the respiratory disease as a new type of coronavirus, Chinese state media reported.
Officials at Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported the outbreak's first death on January 9, a 61-year-old man.
January 13 2020: A Chinese woman in Thailand was the first confirmed case of the mystery virus outside of China. 

The 61-year-old was quarantined on January 8, but has since returned home in a stable condition after having treatment, the Thai Health Ministry said.
January 14 2020: The WHO told hospitals around the globe to prepare, in the 'possible' event of the infection spreading.
It said there is some 'limited' human-to-human transmission of the virus. 

Two days previously, the UN agency said there was 'no clear evidence of human to human transmission'.
January 16 2020: A man in Tokyo is confirmed to have tested positive for the disease after travelling to the Chinese city of Wuhan.
A second death, a 69-year-old man, was reported by officials at Wuhan Municipal Health Commission. 

He died in the early hours of January 15 at Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan city having first been admitted to hospital on December 31.
January 17 2020: Thailand announces it has detected a second case. 

The 74-year-old woman had been quarantined since her arrival on Monday. 

She lived in Wuhan.
Scientists at Imperial College London fear up to 4,500 patients in Wuhan may have caught the virus. A report said if cases are this high, substantial human to human transmission can't be ruled out.
John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK), San Francisco International Airport and Los Angles International Airport (LAX) will start screening passengers arriving from Wuhan, US officials said.
January 20 2020: China reported a sharp rise in the number of people infected with a new coronavirus over the weekend, including 136 more cases in Wuhan city.
The outbreak spread across China, as authorities in Shenzhen in southern China reported one case, and Chinese state media said Beijing had reported two cases.
South Korea confirmed its first case -- a 35-year-old woman arriving at Seoul’s Incheon airport tested positive for the virus. 

She had been in Wuhan the week prior.
The total number of confirmed cases reached 205, including three deaths and four confirmed cases outside China.
Details were not revealed about the third death.

Soon it becomes clear that something is very wrong. 

It turns out that those who are sick are not coming just to one hospital in a single town; they are turning up everywhere. 

Literally everywhere. All over the world. 

A quarter of the world’s population report symptoms. 

And then people start dying. In large numbers.
The scale is frightening. 

In the U.S., where a third of the population are infected, hundreds of thousands die. India pays a terrible price as 18 million succumb.
This is no Hollywood blockbuster, hoping to scare its way to box office success. This is what happened 100 years ago as the Spanish flu took hold.
Between January 1918 and the end of the following year, 500 million people had become infected. By the end of the outbreak, perhaps as many as five per cent of all the men, women and children on the planet lay dead.
Only a century on, no wonder health officials have been so concerned about the emergence of ‘2019-CoV’, a new strain of coronavirus that emerged recently in the city of Wuhan in China and which has infected more than 200 people, killing at least three.
The true figure of the dead and infected may well be higher: the Chinese authorities have been accused of covering up the scale of the outbreak, while scientists at Imperial College London have suggested that ‘substantially more cases’ have taken hold.
The new coronavirus strain has been found in neighbouring Japan, Thailand and South Korea, and has infected at least one Briton, backpacker Ashley Shorley, 32, who fell ill while travelling in Thailand and was airlifted to hospital.
It does not even matter where an outbreak of an infectious disease originates. 

In our interconnected world, a disease can potentially infect billions in weeks or less.
Airlines carry infected people from one side of the planet to another, faster than at any time in history.
London is connected to Wuhan by three direct flights per week. 

Almost every other city on Earth is a maximum of 18 hours away.
So although the death toll from the new strain of coronavirus has, mercifully, so far remained low, the lesson of history is that global pandemics have struck many times, playing a key role in shaping — and ending — civilisations.
One will strike again: the only question is when. 

The World Health Organisation has been warning of these dangers for some time, reminding us that global pandemics represent a major threat to human existence.
Perhaps the most famous case was the Black Death that swept through Asia into the Middle East, Europe and Africa in the middle of the 14th century. 

Those infected with the yersinia pestis bacterium suffered terribly as their organs were attacked in turn, with bags of pus and blood pooling at the lymph nodes in the armpit or groin, then multiplying to cause swellings that could grow as large as an apple.
The haemorrhaging of poisoned blood that turned black gave the outbreak of plague its name.
Large-scale outbreaks of plague have been closely connected to climate change, meaning that the disease moves beyond its local habitat and spreads rapidly.
This is what happened in the AD540s, when the ‘Justinianic plague’ (named after the Byzantine Emperor Justinian) was so devastating that there were said to be not enough people to bury the dead in Constantinople (now Istanbul). 

Bodies were dumped in empty towers and left to rot, producing a foul smell across the city.
Plague kills quickly: when there is no one left, it dies out, which in turn means that quarantine is a useful strategy against it.

Wuhan residents have made made more than four million trips by train, road and air since January 10 during the annual Lunar New Year travel rush. Above, a screen grab from CCTV's news programme shows flocks of passengers leaving Wuhan Train Station on Monday
Experts from the country's National Health Commission have urged Wuhan's 11 million residents not to leave the city after finding 'affirmative' evidence that the fatal virus could spread between humans. The life-threatening virus has killed six people in the Chinese city
World Health Organization officials called an emergency meeting o Monday to discuss whether the coronavirus outbreak stemming from China comprises a global emergency (file).

Isolating the infected has been used regularly in Africa in recent decades to contain another devastating disease.
First identified in 1976, ebola virus causes bleeding, vomiting and diarrhoea, weakening the liver and kidneys and often killing its host in a matter of days.
It is highly infectious, being passed through fluid exchange during sex, kissing, from sweat, breastmilk or exposure to an open wound via mucous membranes in the eyes, mouth and nose. Clothing contaminated with body fluids from someone infected can also spread the virus.

TOURISM STOCKS HIT BY VIRUS FEARS BUT FACE MASK MAKERS SURGE
Stock markets in China and Hong Kong saw share prices dip in tourism and retail sectors today over fears the outbreak will scare off tourists, the Financial Times reported.
Hong Kong's main index, the Hang Seng, fell by 2.8 per cent today, January 21, while the Shanghai Composite Index in China dropped by 1.7 per cent.
Analysts say the drop followed the Chinese health commission's announcement that the coronavirus outbreak was spreading between people, not just from animals. 

This raises the prospect of the outbreak becoming much more severe and fast-spreading.
The Chinese New Year will be celebrated this weekend and millions of people in East Asia are expected to travel during the festivities.
But tourism and shopping companies may see their profits take a hit if people change their plans for fear of the deadly virus spreading.
Major Chinese airlines saw their share values drop – Air China fell by 3.2 per cent and China Eastern by 3 per cent – and a company called Wharf Real Estate Investment, which runs shopping malls in Hong Kong, dropped by more than four per cent.
Economists told the FT the growing number of viral infections was 'extremely concerning' for businesses in China's big cities and Hong Kong.
While tourism firms saw their prospects hit, companies producing pharmaceuticals and those which make surgical face masks saw the opposite effect, surging over the weekend, according to CNBC.
The companies Jiangsu Sihuan Bioengineering, Shandong Lukang Pharmaceutical and Shenzhen Neptunus Bioengineering all saw stock values rise by about 10 per cent on Monday.
And shares in companies making face masks – notably Tianjin Teda and Shanghai Dragon – also jumped by between 9.8 and 10 per cent.
This happened after authorities revealed that the disease was able to spread between people, raising the risk of it developing into a serious outbreak.

There have been outbreaks in Africa — the most recent of which began in August 2018. In the past 18 months, at least 1,700 have died, with the situation becoming so worrying that last summer the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued a global health emergency.
Mercifully, preventive measures seem to have stalled ebola’s progress — at least for now.
Few experts have any illusions, though, of how close we have sailed to the wind — or how poorly prepared we are to face a pandemic.
A study produced by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. last year warned that there are ‘severe weaknesses in countries’ abilities to prevent, detect and respond to significant disease outbreaks’. Most countries have almost no systems or agreements in place on how to co-operate in the event of a serious pandemic.
So concerned is the WHO that it has identified diseases that demand special attention.
These include the zika virus, which sprang to public attention in 2015 after an outbreak led doctors to urge women thinking of becoming pregnant to wait, so great were the threats of neurological problems and birth defects to unborn children from the mosquito-borne disease.
Most chilling, however, is that alongside well-known illnesses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars, of which family the coronavirus is part), the WHO also includes another potential killer.
This is named simply Disease X: ‘a serious international epidemic’ that could be ‘caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease’.
Like something out of a dystopian film, this could come from a virus that has jumped the species barrier from animals and mutated to infect humans, killing us in huge numbers.
We live in a world where it is cheaper and easier to create and engineer new pathogens in laboratories, by mistake or on purpose. These can, of course, be released intentionally to cause harm — perhaps by a state seeking revenge for international humiliation or by a non-state perpetrator as an act of terrorism. 

Diseases can also escape by mistake or spill out of control. Any such scenario brings unknown, but potentially devastating, consequences.
The good news is that a century on from the Spanish flu, research capabilities, including the development of antibiotics, as well as improved sanitation, hygiene and medical care, mean we do have some weapons to wield against a major disease outbreak.
The internet and other modern channels for spreading information rapidly and widely would also prove important — but it is likely that, in the event of a new global pandemic, the authorities would have to spend a lot of time countering misinformation online.
In the event of Disease X emerging as a 21st-century plague, it is not inconceivable that airports and perhaps even cities would be shut down and quarantined — and not impossible that those within the quarantine zone would pay a terrible, deadly price.
The Wuhan outbreak may be just another tremor. 

But few should have any doubts. 

The problem about nightmares is that they are reflections of realities. As the past shows, sometimes they have come true.

Two Chinas Policy

U.S. warship sails through Taiwan Strait after election

By Emerson Lim, Chiang Chin-yeh, Su Long-chi, Wang Yang-yu and Yu Hsiang

Taipei -- Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) and the U.S. 7th Fleet confirmed Friday that a United States warship recently sailed through the Taiwan Strait, less than one week after Taiwan's 2020 presidential and legislative elections.
The move was interpreted by some Taiwanese lawmakers as a warning to Beijing.
The transit happened Thursday with the U.S. warship approaching southwest of Taiwan and sailing north through the Taiwan Strait, a MND statement said Friday.
The MND did not identify the U.S. military vessel but said it was conducting "normal" navigation operations and Taiwan's Armed Forces fully monitored its movement.
Joe Keiley, spokesperson of the U.S. 7th Fleet, confirmed the transit in response to a query from CNA.
"The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Shiloh (CG 67) conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit Jan. 16 in accordance with international law," Keiley said in a statement.
"The ship's transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific. The U.S. Navy will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows," he said.
The USS Shiloh is a forward deployed Ballistic Missile Defense Cruiser stationed out of Yokosuka, Japan.
The vessel's transit through the Taiwan Strait came five days after Taiwan's 2020 presidential and legislative elections, in which President Tsai Ing-wen 蔡英文, who ran for reelection, and her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won a landslide victory.
Following the elections, many foreign and domestic analysts predicted that Beijing is likely to increase pressure on Taiwan, with the flexing of military muscle a possible option.
Meanwhile, Taiwan legislators expressed different views on the U.S. warship's transit through the Taiwan Strait.
DPP lawmaker Tsai Shih-ying 蔡適應 said the transit showed Washington's support for Taiwan's democratic process, adding that the U.S. action provided a sense of security for the Taiwanese people.
Another DPP lawmaker Lo Chih-cheng 羅致政 said the timing of the transit could be read as the U.S. telling China not to overreact to the results of Taiwan's election, as Beijing has issued harsh statements over the past few days.

President Tsai Stands Up to Xi Jinping

The Chinese dictator miscalculated, increasing the pressure he exerted, but driving more support to President Tsai Ing-wen.

By Thomas Wright

Taiwan can seem like the third rail of international diplomacy. 

If a country wants a good relationship with China, Beijing has effectively stated, it cannot have a meaningful relationship with Taiwan. 

Just this week, the city of Shanghai broke off official contacts with the city of Prague for signing a partnership treaty with Taipei. 

Beijing has long regarded Taiwan as nothing more than a renegade province. 

Under Xi Jinping, China has systematically tried to reduce Taiwan’s international space, forcing it out of global organizations and forums, as well as increasing military and economic coercion to force it into a process of reunification.

By this measure, Tsai Ing-wen’s landslide reelection on Saturday as president of Taiwan will come as a great disappointment to Beijing. 

President Tsai’s victory seemed very unlikely nine months ago. 

She was more than 20 points behind in the polls. 

Her party, the DPP, suffered a big defeat in midterm elections in 2018. 

But China’s actions in Hong Kong gave the Taiwanese a glimpse of their possible future. 

In his 2019 New Year’s Day message, Xi demanded that Taiwan look to the “one country, two systems” approach as a model for future relations. 

The Taiwanese had their worst fears about what that meant confirmed in Hong Kong and gave a resounding “No, thanks.”
Taiwan’s politics are complicated and defy the typical left-right divide. 

The DPP has traditionally favored formal independence, although President Tsai is cautious and has made it clear she will not take any steps in this direction that could give Beijing a pretext for an invasion. 

Her government is focused on preserving Taiwan’s practical autonomy and freedoms. 

The other party is the Kuomintang (KMT), which extended its rule over Taiwan after losing the Chinese civil war to the Communists. 

The KMT favors closer ties with Beijing and eventual reunification, albeit on very different terms to those proposed by Xi. 

Young people in Taiwan have no emotional attachment to the past and want to preserve the only way of life they have known.
Beijing made its feelings known quickly. 

Commenting on the election, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, said the “international consensus” on “the one-China principle,” which holds that “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory … will not be affected in the least by a local election.” 

“Those who split the country will be doomed to leave a stink for 10,000 years,” he said. 

The Global Times, a newspaper operated under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party, called for “a plan to crack down on President Tsai’s new provocative actions, including imposing military pressure, which is an unbearable option for Taiwan authorities.”

The big question hanging over Taiwan now is how Beijing will react over the next four years. 

I spent the past five days in Taipei with a small group of Americans and Australians to observe the elections. 

We also had an opportunity to speak with President Tsai and other senior officials.

“We need to be candid,” President Tsai told us. 

“If we are vague, Beijing may misjudge the situation. In the past, people have gotten concerned when we are direct, but the situation has changed. We need to be direct to prevent misjudgment.” President Tsai reminded me of Angela Merkel. 

A 63-year-old academic, she is both principled and cautious. 

“We must be clear, but not provocative; loud, but careful,” she said.

Taiwan officials told me that more than 70 countries had sent messages of congratulations to President Tsai and the people of Taiwan on the election, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

They said the messages were longer and arrived faster than in previous years. 

This may seem like a small thing, but in a place where protocol is often seen as a matter of survival, it mattered. 

The officials pointed in particular to Europe, where they said they had witnessed a sea change in recent years. 

As European countries experienced direct pressure from China on a variety of fronts, they have seen Taiwan in a new light.

Taiwan officials believe that Xi miscalculated on Taiwan. 

He saw that President Tsai was politically vulnerable and sought to increase pressure, but it had the opposite effect. 

Xi has decades of experience in dealing with Taiwan and sees himself as the expert in chief. 

Now that his judgment has been revealed to be fallible, the question is whether he will be impatient and seek to achieve unification through coercive means, or whether he has enough on his plate. 

Taipei hopes that Xi will reach out to President Tsai to ease tensions. 

The officials pointed out that President Tsai is not an ideologue. 

If China does not deal with her now, it may have to deal with future leaders who they will perceive as more difficult. 

There is no prospect of leaders who will engage on the one country, two systems idea, even if the KMT were to make a comeback.

But Taipei is not counting on Xi having a change of heart. 

Instead, officials are preparing for a prolonged pressure campaign. 

Although the military threat grabs headlines, President Tsai’s government’s main foreign-policy goal is to halt and reverse its diplomatic isolation. 

Taiwan officials see the Trump administration as a stalwart ally in this regard. 

The U.S. has increased official engagement and approved the sale of fighter jets. 

Taipei hopes to move toward a free-trade agreement and is willing to offer good terms. 

However, Donald Trump remains a wild card. 

For instance, Trump complained bitterly after a mid-ranking State Department official, Alex Wong, visited Taipei to demonstrate U.S. solidarity, because he worried that it would infuriate Xi.

Always susceptible to direct requests from Xi, Trump reportedly considered firing him, but eventually demurred.
Support for Taiwan is likely to remain a bipartisan cause in the United States. 

Both Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg issued strong statements of congratulations and support after President Tsai’s election. 

In Washington, there is widespread recognition that President Tsai’s win was not a disruptive act; it was a vote for stability and the status quo. 

Isolating Taiwan is bad not just for Taiwan, but for the world. 

After President Tsai’s first election in 2016, China blocked Taiwan’s attendance as an observer at World Health Assembly meetings even though it had participated for the past eight years under a KMT government. 

Global pandemics know no boundaries, and tackling this threat ought not to be dependent on whether Beijing approves of Taiwan’s political choices.

The pressure Taiwan is experiencing is a more extreme case of the pressure many countries, companies, and people are under from Beijing, whether it is the Swedish government awarding a free-speech prize to a Swedish citizen born in Hong Kong; the mayor of Prague; a Turkish soccer player in England; or American technology companies. 

When I asked President Tsai what lessons the world should draw from Beijing’s global assertiveness, she told me, “We cannot afford to be romantic about the relationship with China.”

The question facing democracies is whether to accommodate Beijing’s attempt to silence all criticism and to ensure engagement occurs only on its terms, or to be candid and steadfast about defending and preserving the freedoms we have. 

The people of Taiwan chose to be candid not despite the fact that they are under pressure, but because of it. 

The rest of the world is moving in that direction, too.

President Tsai Ing-wen says communist China must face reality of Taiwan's independence

China has repeatedly threatened that it will bring Taiwan under its authority, but President Tsai says election result shows Taiwanese citizens don’t agree
By Lily Kuo in Beijing

President Tsai Ing-wen, who has vowed to protect Taiwan from China, won the presidential election on Saturday. 

Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-wen has called on China to face reality and review its current policy toward the nation that Beijing claims is part of its territory.
President Tsai, who won re-election in a landslide victory on Saturday, told reporters: “We hope China can thoroughly understand the opinion and will expressed by Taiwanese people in this election and review their current policies.”
The president’s comments come days after China’s top diplomat said that unification with China was a “historical inevitability” and that anyone who opposed it would “stink for 10,000 years,” an idiom to mean someone will go down in infamy.
China has repeatedly said that it will bring Taiwan under its authority by any means necessary, including force.
Analysts believe Chinese dictator Xi Jinping aims to achieve that by 2049, the deadline for the country to achieve its “great rejuvenation”.

Taiwan was ruled for more than three decades by the nationalist army, the Kuomintang, which fled to the island in 1949 after being defeated by the Chinese communist party and created a rival government, the Republic of China, better known today as Taiwan.
It has since transformed into a multi-party democracy, under a government and political system completely separate from China’s.
The election of a candidate who campaigned heavily on promises to not allow Taiwan to become another Hong Kong has been widely seen as a rebuke to China’s efforts to intimidate and persuade Taiwan citizens to support unification.
Under President Tsai’s first term, Beijing severed a dialogue mechanism with Taiwan and has sought to isolate it diplomatically.
In a show of strength, China sailed its new aircraft carrier through the Taiwan strait twice in the run up to the election.
President Tsai opposes unification but has never said that she would formally declare Taiwan’s independence, which would provoke Beijing.
“We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,” Tsai told the BBC.
“We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China, Taiwan.”
Tsai said the election served as a “very strong message from the people of Taiwan.”
“They don’t like the idea of being threatened all the time. We are a successful democracy … We deserve respect from China,” she said.
“We have a separate identity and we’re a country of our own.”
Beijing has refused to deal directly with President Tsai on the grounds that she has not, like her predecessor, accepted the so-called 1992 consensus which says that Taiwan and China are part of “one China”.
The vague agreement leaves it up to each side to interpret the definition of “one China”.
President Tsai said that before dialogue can be re-opened, Beijing must review its current approach.
“If they are not prepared to face reality, then whatever we offer won’t be satisfying to them.”

Universal Joy

Hong Kong people fete landslide election win for Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen

By James Pomfret, Yimou Lee

TAIPEI -- Hong Kong’s democracy protesters and politicians have hailed a sweeping election win by Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen as a fillip for their movement that puts further pressure on China.

Some who left the Asian financial hub after nearly seven months of often violent protests said they welcomed Tsai’s historic win with more than 8 million votes, exceeding the tally of any previous president.
“A weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” said a Hong Kong protester in Taipei, who gave his name only as Roger and said he had feared being kicked out of Taiwan if its China-friendly opposition Kuomintang party swept to power.
Authorities in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong have arrested more than 7,000 people, many on charges of rioting that can carry jail terms of up to 10 years.
“I hope Hong Kong can be like Taiwan, that in the time of our next generation, Hong Kong will be a democratic and free place,” said Ventus Lau, one of the organizers of a 1,000- strong rally in Hong Kong against the Chinese Communist Party.
“That’s why, in 2020, we need to fight autocracy together with the international community,” Lau said on Sunday.
Some in the crowd waved black Hong Kong protest flags with the slogan, “Free Hong Kong. Revolution Now,” as President Tsai delivered a victory speech to ecstatic supporters on Saturday.
“I believe many democratic countries in the world, and many friends in Hong Kong, will feel happy about our collective decision,” President Tsai said, drawing plaudits in Hong Kong’s online protester forums and groups on the Telegram messaging app.
The slogan “Today Taiwan, Tomorrow Hong Kong” has sprung up after the landslide win, to express the hope that Hong Kong too will one day have full democracy.
The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 amid promises it would be granted a high degree of autonomy and eventual universal suffrage.
But China’s tightening grip on the city and Beijing’s failure to live up to its promises have fed the unrest, in one of the biggest popular challenges to the ruling Communist Party since the return.
Many credit the protests with having helped to sway the Taiwan election in President Tsai’s favor and deliver a rebuke to Beijing.
President Tsai’s government, which also won a parliamentary majority, owed Hong Kong more concrete support, said Roger Wong, a newly elected pro-democracy district councillor from the city who attended victory celebrations in Taipei.
“I hope Taiwan can now speak up more for Hong Kong, especially the young people,” said Wong, 41, one of about 10 politicians who visited Taiwan for the election after a big win in November’s district polls.
While Taiwan has discreetly extended tourist visas and offered special mid-year intakes for Hong Kong students at some universities, calls have grown to amend the law with special provisions for the territory.
“This election is proof that Xi Jinping’s strategy of keeping Hong Kong and Taiwan under control is a total failure,” said Leung Man-to, a political science professor at the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, referring to China’s leader.
“Taiwan should offer some kind of formal channel for Hong Kong people in exile to seek political asylum ... President Tsai never dared do anything substantial before, but she could now try to do something new, even if it provokes Beijing.”

Taiwan’s president re-elected as voters back tough China stance

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen defeated two challengers in Saturday’s election — pro-China Han Kuo-yu of the rival Nationalist Party and James Soong of the smaller People First Party.

AP

Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president, looks on during a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Taipei, Taiwan, on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has won a second term, signaling strong voter support for her tough stance against China.
Tsai defeated two challengers in Saturday’s election — Han Kuo-yu of the rival Nationalist Party and James Soong of the smaller People First Party.
Han told supporters in the southern port city of Kaohsiung that he had called to congratulate Tsai on her victory.
Voters chose Tsai’s tough stance against China over Han’s arguments for friendlier ties with Beijing, which considers independent Taiwan a renegade province to be brought under its control, by force if necessary.
China’s communist leaders have taken an especially hard line against Tsai since her 2016 inauguration, infuriated by her refusal to endorse its claim that Taiwan and the mainland belong to a single China. 

Her victory will likely deepen that deadlock and ratchet up pressure from Beijing.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen appeared headed for a landslide victory and a second term on Saturday with more than 70% of precincts reporting election tallies.
Results from the Central Election Commission showed Tsai, with 58% of the vote, holding a healthy lead over her closest challenger, Han Kuo-yu of the Nationalist Party, who had 38%. 

A third candidate, James Soong, had 4%.
The mood was jubilant at the headquarters of Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party in Taipei, the capital, with supporters cheering as her tally climbed. 

At a gathering in Kaohsiung, where Han is mayor, it was much grimmer, with some wiping away tears.
Taiwan has developed its own identity since separating from China during civil war in 1949 but has never declared formal independence. 

Beijing still claims sovereignty over the island of 23 million people and threatens to use force to seize control if necessary.
“I hope every citizen can come out and vote,” Tsai said after casting her vote in Taipei. 

“You should exercise your rights to make democracy stronger in Taiwan.”
Han voted in Kaohsiung, where he is mayor.
For many in Taiwan, months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, have driven home the contrast between their democratically governed island and authoritarian, communist-ruled mainland China.
President Tsai portrayed the election as a chance to protect Taiwan’s democracy.
“Let us tell the world with our own votes that Taiwanese are determined to defend sovereignty, determined to guard democracy and determined to persist in reforms,” she said at a rally late Friday.
The Nationalist Party’s Han has said Taiwan should be more open to negotiations with China, in contrast to Tsai, who has dismissed Beijing’s overtures. 

The Hong Kong protests have undermined support in Taiwan for the “one country, two systems” approach Beijing has championed for governing both that former British colony and Taiwan.
Fears of Chinese interference in Taiwan’s politics and an uptick in the economy helped Tsai regain an edge after a dire electoral setback for her Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, 14 months ago.
“The reason why I vote for her is for upholding the value of Taiwan’s freedom and democracy and that should not be affected by the other side of the strait (China),” Lucy Ting, a college student, said at Tsai’s rally on Friday.
The pro-Beijing Nationalists have struggled to find candidates who can fire up their pro-China supporters and win over young Taiwanese who increasingly favor the DPP.
A second term for Tsai is expected to draw more diplomatic, economic and military pressure from Beijing on the island, in a continuation of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s campaign to compel her administration to endorse its myth that Taiwan is a part of China.
Tsai has refused to do so, maintaining that Beijing has no claim over Taiwan, although her government has repeatedly called for the reopening of talks between the sides without preconditions.
Since its transition to full democracy beginning in the 1980s, Taiwan has increasingly asserted its independent identity from China even though it is not recognized by the United Nations or any major nation.
The island of more than 23 million people exercises all the roles of a sovereign nation, issuing its own passports, maintaining its own military and legal system and serving as a crucial hub in the global high-tech supply chain. 

Reelected Tsai will face challenges in trying to reform the government and economy and push through unpopular cuts in generous civil service pensions.

Awash in Disinformation Before Vote, Taiwan Points Finger at China

Taiwan is on high alert for digital-age trickery and deception that Beijing is using to try to swing a crucial election.
By Raymond Zhong

TAIPEI, Taiwan — At first glance, the bespectacled YouTuber railing against Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, just seems like a concerned citizen making an appeal to his fellow Taiwanese.
He speaks Taiwanese-accented Mandarin, with the occasional phrase in Taiwanese dialect.
His captions are written with the traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan, not the simplified ones used in China.
With outrage in his voice, he accuses Ms. Tsai of selling out “our beloved land of Taiwan” to Japan and the United States.
The man, Zhang Xida, does not say in his videos whom he works for.
But other websites and videos make it clear: He is a host for China National Radio, the Beijing-run broadcaster.
As Taiwan gears up for a major election this week, officials and researchers worry that China is experimenting with social media manipulation to sway the vote.
Doing so would be easy, they fear, in the island’s rowdy democracy, where the news cycle is fast and voters are already awash in false or highly partisan information.
China has been upfront about its dislike for President Tsai, who opposes closer ties with Beijing.
The Communist Party claims Taiwan as part of China’s territory, and it has long deployed propaganda and intimidation to try to influence elections here.
Polls suggest, however, that Beijing’s heavy-handed ways might be backfiring and driving voters to embrace Ms. Tsai.
Thousands of Taiwan citizens marched last month against “red media,” or local news organizations influenced by the Chinese government.
That is why Beijing may be turning to subtler, digital-age methods to inflame and divide.
Recently, there have been Facebook posts saying falsely that Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong democracy activist who has fans in Taiwan, had attacked an old man.
There were posts about nonexistent protests outside Taiwan’s presidential house, and hoax messages warning that ballots for the opposition Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party, would be automatically invalidated.
In the southern city of Kaohsiung, thousands marched at a Dec. 21 rally to oppose pro-Beijing Han Kuo-yu, the presidential candidate for the Kuomintang.

So many rumors and falsehoods circulate on Taiwanese social media that it can be hard to tell whether they originate in Taiwan or in China, and whether they are the work of private provocateurs or of state agents.
Taiwan’s National Security Bureau in May issued a downbeat assessment of Chinese-backed disinformation on the island, urging a “‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of society’ response.”
“False information is the last step in an information war,” the bureau’s report said.
“If you find false information, that means you have already been thoroughly infiltrated.”
Taiwanese society has woken up to the threat.
The government has strengthened laws against spreading harmful rumors.
Companies including Facebook, Google and the messaging service Line have agreed to police their platforms more stringently.
Government departments and civil society groups now race to debunk hoaxes as quickly as they appear.
The election will put these efforts — and the resilience of Taiwan’s democracy — to the test.
“The ultimate goal, just like what Russia tried to do in the United States, is to crush people’s confidence in the democratic system,” said Tzeng Yi-suo of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a think tank funded by the government of Taiwan.
In Taiwan, civil society groups such as FakenewsCleaner have worked to fact check social media posts and educate the public about disinformation.

Fears of Chinese meddling became acute in recent months after a man named Wang Liqiang sought asylum in Australia claiming he had worked for Chinese intelligence to fund pro-Beijing candidates in Taiwan, buy off media groups and conduct social media attacks.
And there are other signs that Beijing is working to upgrade its techniques of information warfare.
Twitter, which is blocked in mainland China, recently took down a vast network of accounts that it described as Chinese state-backed trolls trying to discredit Hong Kong’s protesters.
A 2018 paper in a journal linked to the United Front Work Department, a Communist Party organ that organizes overseas political networking, argued that Beijing had failed to shape Taiwanese public discourse in favor of unification with China.
In November, the United Front Work Department held a conference in Beijing on internet influence activities, according to an official social media account.
The department’s head, You Quan, said the United Front would help people such as social media influencers, live-streamers and professional e-sports players to “play an active role in guiding public opinion.”
“We understand that the people who are sowing discord are also building a community, that they are also learning from each other’s playbooks,” said Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s digital minister.
“There are new innovations happening literally every day.”
In Taiwan, Chinese internet trolls were once easily spotted because they posted using the simplified Chinese characters found only on the mainland.
That happens less these days, though there are still linguistic slip-ups.

Audrey Tang, the digital minister of Taiwan.

In one of the YouTube videos from Zhang, the China National Radio employee, a character in the description is incorrectly translated into traditional Chinese from simplified Chinese.
Zhang did not respond to a message seeking comment.
In December, Taiwan’s justice ministry warned about a fake government notice saying Taiwan was deporting protesters who had fled Hong Kong.
The hoax first appeared on the Chinese social platform Weibo, the ministry said, before spreading to a Chinese nationalist Facebook group.
Sometimes, Chinese trolls amplify rumors already floating around in Taiwan, Mr. Shen said.
He is also on the lookout for Taiwanese social media accounts that may be bought or supported by Chinese operatives.
Ahead of midterm elections in 2018, his team had been monitoring several YouTube channels that discussed Taiwanese politics.
The day after voting ended, the channels disappeared.
After Yu Hsin-Hsien was elected to the City Council that year in Taoyuan, a city near Taipei, mysterious strangers began inquiring about buying his Facebook page, which had around 280,000 followers.
Mr. Yu, 30, immediately suspected China.
His suspicions grew after he demanded an extravagantly high price and the buyers accepted.
Mr. Yu, who represents Ms. Tsai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, did not sell.
“Someone approaches a just-elected legislator and offers to buy his oldest weapon,” Mr. Yu said. “What’s his motive? To serve the public? It can’t be.”
Recently, internet users in Taiwan noticed a group of influencers, many of them pretty young women, posting messages on Facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #DeclareMyDeterminationToVote. The posts did not mention candidates or parties, but the people included selfies with a fist at their chest, a gesture often used by Han Kuo-yu, the Kuomintang’s presidential candidate.
Han’s campaign denied involvement.
But some have speculated that China’s United Front might be responsible.
The United Front Work Department did not respond to a fax requesting comment.
One line of attack against Ms. Tsai has added to the atmosphere of mistrust and high conspiracy ahead of this week’s vote.
Politicians and media outlets have questioned whether Ms. Tsai’s doctoral dissertation is authentic, even though her alma mater, the London School of Economics, has confirmed that it is.