'Willing to provide necessary assistance...' Taiwan offers support to China to deal with COVID outbreak

Despite stating that Chinese military exercises near the island were harmful to peace and stability, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Sunday offered China the "essential support" it needs to deal with the dramatic increase of COVID cases. Tsai Ing-wen said in her New Year's message, without going into further detail, "As long as there is a need, based on the position of humanitarian care, we are willing to offer the necessary assistance to assist more people get out of the pandemic and have a healthy and safe new year."

After unexpectedly reversing its tight zero-COVID policy in December, China is currently dealing with a Covid surge brought on by an increase in cases. After three years of strict lockdowns and intensive testing, China finally opened up, and millions of people became infected. It is anticipated that this number will continue to climb.

Tsai repeated her appeal for communication with China, stating that using force to settle disputes was not an option.

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In his New Year's speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a passing mention of Taiwan, stating that everyone living on either side of the Taiwan Strait "are members of one and the same family," but he made no mention of efforts to annex the island.

Taiwan and China have repeatedly sparred over their respective measures to control the spread of COVID. Following an increase in domestic cases last year, China had criticised Taiwan for its inefficient management of the pandemic. Taiwan, however, accused China of lacking openness and of attempting to obstruct the supply of vaccines to Taiwan, both of which Beijing has denied.

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• COVID
• China
• Taiwan
• Tsai Ing-wen
• Xi Jinping
• coronavirus
• pandemic