«Shackled» and «Despotic Leviathan» in Action: Taiwan and Mainland China in the Face of Coronavirus
Por Pedro Isern
How has mainland China reacted to the coronavirus outbreak? It has done so like a typical dictatorship: first, it denied it and punished those who, like the ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, informed about the appearance of an unprecedented sanitary problem. Secondly, it implemented a repressive, authoritarian and violent topdown strategy. Thirdly, it clearly manipulated numbers, like all dictatorships do, of every issue, at every moment, and in every place.
Although they tried to manipulate and hide information, the virus erupted in mainland China in November-December 2019, registering 80,967 cases to date (March 20, 2020) and 3,248 deaths. Meanwhile, Taiwan has registered 135 cases and one death. The global number of cases is 253,933, with 10,407 deaths.
