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The Taiwan government has gained much international recognition for its successful strategy to fight the coronavirus pandemic at home. Since it responded resolutely and systematically to the first suspicion of human-to-human transmission of a new coronavirus detected in China by early January 2020 already, Taiwan has avoided large-scale infection waves and has displayed one of the most impressive records of containing the virus worldwide. Obviously, the government steered the wheel in Taiwan’s anti-epidemic politics with the population complying willfully. It is argued in this presentation that, among other factors, latent anti-China sentiment coupled with a hidden narrative of fear bespeaking Taiwanese nationalism is important in understanding Taiwan’s successful response to the crisis which has been a catalysator for further estrangement across the Taiwan Strait.

Gunter Schubert is Chair Professor of Greater China Studies and Director of the European Research Center on Contemporary Taiwan (ERCCT) at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen.

You can watch a recording of the talk here.