How Taiwan differs from China after pandemic missteps
Mistakes during Covid-19 brought election losses for Taiwan鈥檚 ruling party. The party leader accepted the people鈥檚 judgment with humility.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen (left) and a colleague bow Nov. 26 after she announced she has resigned as Democratic Progressive Party chair to take responsibility for the party's performance in the local elections.
Reuters
Last weekend, when protesters across China called on Communist Party leader Xi Jinping to step down over his strict 鈥渮ero-COVID鈥� policies, just 100 miles away in Taiwan, the leader of the island nation鈥檚 ruling party did just that. On Saturday evening, President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as head of the Democratic Progressive Party following the party鈥檚 major defeat in local elections.
鈥淲e humbly accept ... the decision of the people of聽Taiwan,鈥澛燤s. Tsai wrote on Facebook. She鈥檒l remain president until the end of her second term in 2024. In a 2020 national election, she won by a landslide.
One key reason for the party鈥檚 defeat in the city and county races was Ms. Tsai鈥檚 fumbled response to a surge in COVID-19 cases earlier this year. Also, the government faced controversy over its handling of vaccines after an initial success against the pandemic in 2020.
In China, the official response to public anger over COVID-19 policies 鈥� especially citywide lockdowns 鈥� has been a severe police crackdown. In sharp contrast, similar discontent in Taiwan has been peacefully channeled through a thriving democracy, resulting in victories for the main opposition party, the Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as KMT. Even the former top official in the fight against the pandemic, Chen Shih-chung, lost in his bid to become mayor of the capital, Taipei.
China touts its authoritarian model as best for the world. Yet Ms. Tsai鈥檚 reaction to her party鈥檚 loss shows a key quality rarely evoked in a dictatorship. Just after her election in 2016, her first instruction to her party and supporters was to 鈥渂e humble and be more humble.鈥�
She needed it herself. In June last year, after Taiwan saw a surge in the pandemic, Ms. Tsai said, 鈥淎s your president, I want to take this opportunity to convey my deepest sorrow and apologies.鈥�
Elected leaders 鈥� unlike in China 鈥� must accept either the admiration or admonishment of voters. 鈥淗umble human beings feel themselves to be dwellers on earth (the word humility derives from humus),鈥� wrote John Keane, professor of politics at the University of Sydney, after Ms. Tsai鈥檚 2016 speech.
鈥淭hey know they do not know everything; they are well aware they are not God, or a minor deity,鈥� he wrote in The Conversation.
The protesters in China have said as much.