Fighting COVID-19: East Asian Responses to the Pandemic

Corona-Virus in Ostasien
Source:  www.institutmontaigne.org/en


Fighting COVID-19:
East Asian Responsesto the Pandemic

POLICY PAPER – APRIL 2020

"INTRODUCTION
The research for this policy paper is about a moving target. Neither the exact origin ofThe research for this policy paper is about a moving target. Neither the exact origin ofthe coronavirus now designated as COVID-19, nor some of its key features in termsof extent, contagiousness, variety of effects on the human being, and response tothe preventive methods and barriers put in place are exactly known. In the best ofcircumstances, neither the number of people contaminated nor even the exactcasualty count are known for sure, so long as complete and reliable testing cannotbe performed. In the worst of circumstances - the initial outbreak in Hubei, China andits capital city Wuhan, and its ensuing spread across China, there are good reasonsto doubt official figures, also we do not know by how much.

Success is therefore a relative term, which should be followed by the words “sofar”. There is uncertainty about the number of asymptomatic patients, and a wave ofnew cases in countries where indeed success seemed to be at hand. To cite just oneof the consequences, countries such as Singapore and Japan, which seemed to haveavoided confinement through a combination of preventive methods, are as of April 7having to impose increasingly severe forms of lock-down.

This research note compares the policy tools used by China, Hong Kong, Japan,the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan to fight against the COVID-19pandemic. In spite of the uncertainties mentioned above, the experience of thesecountries has much to contribute to a toolbox of prevention policies for Europe - whichhas been next in line in the virus’s journey. This is East Asia, and therefore a set ofdeveloped economies. Even China has reached the level of middle-income countries,and all the others have a per capita GDP in the range of the 14 wealthiest EuropeanUnion member states. They differ greatly in terms of political systems - China is anauthoritarian state, Singapore combines rule by law with some authoritarian features,Hong Kong combines rule of law and an executive branch vetted in Beijing. The threeothers are full democracies, where political life is every bit as contested as in Europe. ...."

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