Officials turned Taiwan into a model for fighting Covid-19 3
The phone often rings when Chen Chien-jen, deputy to Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen, is at home at night.
Like many other leaders around the world, Tran Kien Nhan is in charge of the campaign to contain Covid-19 and predict the progression of the pandemic on the island of Taiwan.
But unlike most other officials, Mr. Tran has spent his entire career preparing for this eventuality: He is an epidemiologist trained at Johns Hopkins University and an expert on viruses.
Taiwan Deputy Leader Tran Kien Nhan in a speech in Taipei, 2018. Photo: Reuters.
Mr. Chen Jianren took on a dual role in the fight against the pandemic, using the political power of Taiwan’s number two official to criticize China for `hiding the epidemic`, while also being willing to analyze the infection trend of the country.
He stands between two worlds, as politics increasingly impacts science.
Public health experts around the world frequently clash with political leaders over how the virus spreads and calculate the pros and cons of blockades.
`Evidence is much more important than political interests,` he said in a recent interview in Taipei.
In the final weeks of his term, the success of the fight against Covid-19 has clearly demonstrated Chen’s legacy as Taiwan’s deputy leader.
Chen Kien Nhan, a 68-year-old man with gray hair and a bright smile, is beloved by Taiwanese people as `big brother` and believes he is helping the island avoid a scenario of a large-scale outbreak
As the top health official during the 2003 SARS crisis, he pushed through a series of reforms to help prepare the island of Taiwan for the next outbreak, including building quarantine zones and centers
Those early preparations helped Taiwan have a solid `shield` when Covid-19 struck and received many compliments for its effective response strategy to the pandemic.
Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said that Mr. Tran possesses `the influence of a politician and the expertise of a scientist`, helping to bring about effective results.
Now, Mr. Tran hopes Taiwan can play an important role to help the world escape the pandemic and restart the economy.
Mr. Tran always maintains the working style of a researcher and is often not used to attracting attention.
`He’s an academic and really doesn’t care much about power struggles. He’s famous for being neutral,` said Chen Chi-mai, a senior Taiwanese official and former
Leader Tsai Ing-wen assigned Mr. Tran Kien Nhan to take on the role of leading voice to advocate for Taiwan to be recognized on the international stage, including promoting efforts to help the island become a member of the World Trade Organization.
Mr. Tran has now become the focus of the global debate about the origin of Covid-19.
He immediately seized the opportunity, criticizing mainland China for preventing Taiwan from joining the WHO as a full member and calling on other countries around the world to study the `Taiwan model` in their efforts.
These have made Mr. Chen a frequent target of criticism from mainland Chinese critics, who accuse the Tsai government of using the pandemic to demand independence for Taiwan.
`He puts on the guise of a professional leader but is far from the rigor of science and spreads fabricated and meaningless rumors. The nature of that is really very bad,` the company said.
Taiwan’s deputy leader said this criticism was `ridiculous`.
Staff were disinfecting Nangang metro station, Taipei last week.
Since he was young, Mr. Chen has lived in the world of politics.
`I learned from my father that politics does not mean having to fight one-on-one with others. When people are caught in such a confrontation, they will constantly find ways to blame each other`
For most of his career, Mr. Tran has made clear his stance on avoiding political battles, focusing instead on his first love, natural science.
When the SARS outbreak in Taiwan peaked, with 671 people infected and 84 deaths, Mr. Chen was appointed head of the health agency.
`We saw many people jumping from windows. The situation was really chaotic,` Mr. Tran recalled.
After controlling SARS, Mr. Chen joined Taiwan in efforts to prepare for the next outbreak.
After that, he returned to scientific research until 2015, when Tsai Ing-wen selected him as her deputy in the race for Taiwan’s leadership.
As deputy leader of Taiwan, Mr. Tran must face many other challenges.
Mr. Tran Kien Nhan almost always avoids attracting attention.
Taiwan’s deputy leader quickly asked officials to conduct medical checks on people coming from mainland China and quarantine all people with symptoms of infection.
After Covid-19 broke out on a warship, Mr. Tran urged officials to test more than 700 crew members to collect data for research on asymptomatic infected people.
Taiwanese students had their body temperatures taken at a high school in Taipei last week.
Mr. Tran will end his term as deputy leader of Taiwan on May 20.
He also often goes to church around 7am every day.
