SupChina
Date: April 17, 2020
By: Alex Smith

While women remain vastly underrepresented in politics and account for a mere 7% of world leaders, the past week has seen wide recognition that a disproportionate number of the countries that have been most successful in containing COVID-19 have female leaders (see Leta Hong-Fincher’s piece on CNN).

We take a closer look at these women and why their responses have been so successful.

Prior to joining Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party in 2004, Tsai (蔡英文 Cài Yīngwén), who has a PhD in Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, worked as an economic trade negotiator and as an advisor to Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council.

Taiwan’s success in containing the virus — its COVID-19 infections have slowed to a trickle before reaching 400, and for three days this week it recorded no new cases — has been largely attributed to Tsai’s decision to take action early on. When news of the virus first broke in late December, Tsai ordered all Wuhan arrivals to be inspected, and flights from the mainland, as well as Hong Kong and Macau were later restricted. Taiwan’s border has been effectively closed to foreign travelers since March 19 and the country quickly ramped up its production of personal protective equipment.    [FULL  STORY]