'There is no explosion': Taiwan accuses China of spreading 'fake news' on COVID-19 spread

Taiwan has lashed out on China for spreading ‘vile fake news’ over the COVID-19 surge in the self-ruled democratic island that Beijing claims as its own territory. A Taiwanese official on May 22 said that because China is promoting a fake narrative, the island’s government was publicising and even dismissing the instances of false information that has merged online. Even though Taiwan was initially hailed for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, recently, the island is tackling its record uptick since the outbreak began last year. Lever 3 restrictions have been imposed and public places have also been shut down in Taiwan.

On May 22, as per the report, Taiwan registered 321 fresh domestic cases of COVID-19 along with 400 infections it logged in over the past six days that were not recorded in previous tallies due to delay in following the surge of cases. However, Taiwanese Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said that the infections spiked earlier this week on Monday and since then the trend is “stable” with cases concentrated in the northern part of the island and its capital. He said, “There’s no explosion in the pandemic development” and said that cases were rising in a few recognised hotspots in Taipei and neighbouring New Taipei City.

"The reason we are continuing to explain the contents of the fake information to everyone is to call attention to it. We must immediately intercept this, and not let cognitive warfare affect Taiwan's society," Tsung-yen said.

"I want to say to everyone that this is really vile fake news," he added after citing examples of Chinese propaganda and noting few media reports online claiming that Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was infected with COVID-19.

Taiwan kept COVID-19 largely at bay

The self-governing island with nearly 24 million people off China’s coast was hailed for keeping the pandemic largely at bay even though it originated from its neighbour. Taiwan has logged in 1,475 cases of COVID-19 and mostly infected people had travelled from foreign nations and has recorded 12 deaths. However, in the past week, the total number of locally spread coronavirus infections have tripled past week to 344 from under just 100 as of last weekend.

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