5. Taiwan Can Help: The Political Impacts and Lessons of Taiwan’s Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The chapter analyzes the reasons that Taiwan has fared better than many other countries during the COVID-19 crisis, and the effects this has on domestic politics, cross-Strait relations, and international affairs. We demonstrate that executive coordination and a temporary power shift to the government in response to COVID-19 mitigated dual-legitimacy problems built into semi-presidentialism. The president, whose legitimacy rests on the will of the population, can then play the role of checks and balances in resolving executive overreach in the pandemic, thus raising individual compliance to government pandemic policies, which in turn will help the government respond quickly to pandemics. The better responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have major political consequences: (1) a government will enjoy greater levels of public trust, while the opposition’s influence will be curtailed; (2) a government can donate epidemic prevention supplies to countries with severe COVID-19 outbreaks, thus enhancing the country’s international reputation and improving diplomatic relations; and (3) a government with higher popularity ratings and strong international support will hold a strong bargaining chip when dealing with diplomatic rivals. This study explores the cause–effect link using different types of mechanistic evidence. The results show that the more resilient role that Taiwan’s President Tsai has played in response to the pandemic has boosted government popularity, strengthening her position on cross-Strait policy “to resist China and protect Taiwan” accordingly. The preliminary findings suggest that the semi-presidentialism system, a perilous constitutional design during normal times, may have advantages in a time of crisis. Future research could apply this theoretical framework to a wider range of questions about patterns of pandemic performance between post-communist Eastern European and Western European countries.