Mr. Azar goes to Taiwan
Almost since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump has attempted to shift blame for America’s bungled response to China and to the World Health Organization. This week, the president deployed Azar to the single destination most likely to upset both: Taiwan, the country over which China’s authoritarian government claims sovereignty and that, as a result, WHO has long excluded from its membership ranks.
Azar’s visit is the highest-profile U.S. diplomatic trip to Taiwan since 1979, and it reads as a fairly in-your-face attempt to antagonize the Chinese and the WHO. Already, Azar is praising Taiwan for its “transparency and cooperation in global health;” both Azar and Trump, especially, have criticized China for its lack of transparency in the pandemic’s early stages and have cast the WHO as unwilling to challenge the authoritarian nation’s pandemic response.
Trump announced last month the U.S. had begun the process of withdrawing from WHO, and he has repeatedly blamed China for failing to control the pandemic (of course, it’s the U.S. government that has 160,000 American deaths to answer for, not China.) Taiwan, meanwhile, has also done a remarkable job managing the pandemic, despite its origin just across the Taiwan Strait in mainland China: While the island’s population totals roughly 23 million, its overall death toll is just seven.
Azar’s visit is the highest-profile U.S. diplomatic trip to Taiwan since 1979, and it reads as a fairly in-your-face attempt to antagonize the Chinese and the WHO. Already, Azar is praising Taiwan for its “transparency and cooperation in global health;” both Azar and Trump, especially, have criticized China for its lack of transparency in the pandemic’s early stages and have cast the WHO as unwilling to challenge the authoritarian nation’s pandemic response.
Trump announced last month the U.S. had begun the process of withdrawing from WHO, and he has repeatedly blamed China for failing to control the pandemic (of course, it’s the U.S. government that has 160,000 American deaths to answer for, not China.) Taiwan, meanwhile, has also done a remarkable job managing the pandemic, despite its origin just across the Taiwan Strait in mainland China: While the island’s population totals roughly 23 million, its overall death toll is just seven.
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