Lai Ching-te Taiwan's China Times editorial said that the COVID-19 epidemic has risen, and Chen Shizhong, the head of the health and welfare department of the Taiwan authorities, who has served as the "commander" for more than a year, has shown signs of fatigue, and epidemic prev

Lai Ching-te

Taiwan's China Times editorial said that the new crown epidemic has risen, and Chen Shizhong, the head of the health and welfare department of the Taiwan authorities, who has served as the "commander" for more than a year, has shown signs of fatigue, and epidemic prevention policies are frequently issued; the more serious problem is that because he lacks expectations in the DPP and encounters urgent and sensitive problems, his decision-making is in a bottleneck. Whether it is to consider more effective epidemic prevention needs, the DPP authorities regain the confidence of the people, or even their personal political future, Lai Ching-te, the deputy leader of the Taiwan authorities with a public health background, should be on the stage.

Political Epidemic Prevention, and the dispute over decision-making is constantly

On January 23 last year, the second level of the "Epidemic Command Center" was opened, and Chen Shizhong served as the "commander"; with the international epidemic emergency, the "command center" was upgraded to the first level, and Su Zhenchang, the head of the Taiwan administrative agency, still appointed Chen Shizhong as the "command officer".

However, under the three major challenges of rising epidemics, opening up pigs and health care increases, Chen Shizhong is already in a difficult position. Even he himself said that being shot by these three arrows was a bit painful. To be honest, the three major policies of the epidemic, pigs, and health insurance are closely related to the health and safety of the people. Each one cannot be ignored. The DPP authorities are all pressing on one person, which is unfair to Chen Shizhong and unfair to the whole people. After all, no matter how capable he is, he only has 24 hours a day, and there are always places where he is not well cared for.

For example, the major measure of raising health insurance premiums is related to the rights and interests of the general public and enterprises. However, the Tsai administration's health and welfare department did not give the public any time to adjust and adapt. Chen Shizhong announced on December 31 last year that it would be implemented on January 1 this year, which is shocking. Although this rough decision-making process is related to the Tsai administration's long-standing governance style, the health insurance increase is coming quickly and urgently, probably because Chen Shizhong is in various policy storms and is really unable to do anything and has to cut the mess quickly.

Since Chen Shizhong served as the "epidemic prevention commander", with the joint efforts of the Taiwanese people to strictly abide by various epidemic prevention requirements, Taiwan has been able to say that it has passed the 2020 new crown epidemic smoothly. However, during this period, there were constant controversies over Chen Shizhong's political epidemic prevention and decision-making standards, which not only hurt the authorities' credibility in epidemic prevention, but also made society often fall into unnecessary confrontation.

At present, the global epidemic is still high, and vaccines are indispensable, but when Taiwan can get vaccinated, Chen Shizhong has always been vague about it. The new crown vaccine procurement case involves huge interests. It is rumored that because relevant DPP members fought over it, the "epidemic command center" was unable to settle the interests of all parties, resulting in the continuous ups and downs in Taiwan's procurement process, which delayed the schedule. Regardless of whether this rumor is true or not, seeing that all countries and regions have already given vaccines, Chen Shizhong still cannot clearly promise when the Taiwanese people can give it. This is a fact, and it can also prove that the vaccine deployment of the "Command Center" is slow to respond and slow to make decisions. It seems that the "epidemic prevention commander" must be replaced.

In fact, there is an excellent candidate in the Democratic Progressive Party who is more suitable to serve as the "epidemic prevention commander" than Chen Shizhong, that is Lai Ching-te. In January last year, an epidemic broke out in the mainland. At that time, Lai Ching-te, as the deputy leader of the Taiwan authorities, publicly stated that Taiwan should have no choice but to assist the mainland in solving the serious epidemic. He also believed that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should cooperate on epidemic prevention. Lai Ching-te's words are considered to be a few warm and humanistic views among the DPP politicians, but they were attacked and criticized by the 1450 cyber army. From then on, Lai Ching-te rarely expressed his views on the epidemic.

dared to challenge Tsai Ing-wen but cowardly directed epidemic prevention

Recently, a cluster infection occurred in Taoyuan Hospital under the supervision of the health and welfare department of the Taiwan authorities, which caused the Taiwanese people to panic about the epidemic. Lai Ching-te called on the people to be the backing of medical staff and fully support Taoyuan. As a public health expert and in a high position, Lai Qingde can do a lot of things, and it will not only make the above-mentioned empty remarks that are like talking about paper and following the crowd; he should actually shoulder the heavy responsibility of epidemic prevention command.

This aspect can help Chen Shizhongli to protect the health and safety of Taiwanese people more efficiently.After all, Lai Ching-te's status and influence within the DPP are much higher than Chen Shizhong. When Taiwan entered the "deep water zone for epidemic prevention" for topics such as high-end resource allocation such as vaccines, to be honest, many eyebrows and eyebrows are beyond the reach of Chen Shizhong. He served as a representative of public opinion and local head, and now he is the deputy leader of the Taiwan authorities. Lai Ching-te is familiar with the political ecology of the DPP. His ability and skill to reconcile the DPP is beyond Chen Shizhong's reach.

On the other hand, it is said that Lai Qingte still has the ambition to achieve the "big position" in his heart. Since this is the case, how could he stay dormant in the deep palace courtyard of the Taiwan Leader's Office, which has no active actions? His legendary 2024 party rival Zheng Wencan, mayor of Taoyuan, was brave enough to serve in this Taoist incident and performed more popular than Chen Shizhong. When Zheng Wencan shows the pattern and height of a leader, Lai Ching-te sees it, how can he not be anxious?

Lai Ching-te dared to announce his participation in the primary election of the Taiwan authorities in the party in 2019 and challenged Tsai Ing-wen. Could it be that he was cowardly afraid to direct epidemic prevention this year? Politicians must know how to create a stage by themselves, otherwise they will fade out of people's sight and memory, let alone take it to the next level. Lai Qingde is obliged to take on the responsibility of "epidemic prevention commander" in terms of public and private affairs.