Jakarta (Indonesia Window) - For Taiwan, tackling the Novel Coronavirus outbreak that has claimed 1,369 death tolls in China, surpassing the number of victims of SARS in 2002-2003, is quite a challenge.

Not only because Taiwan is geographically close to China (about 2,103 kilometres far), but also the One China Principle has been hampering Taiwan's participation in global efforts to tackle the outbreak, which is originated from Wuhan in China’s province of Hubei.

A statement from the Taipei Economic and Trade Office (TETO) received by Indonesia Window here on Thursday said the unreasonable "One China Principle" had caused great hardship for the government and people of Taiwan as the situation became even more unconducive in fighting the epidemic.

Taiwan, which is not part of China but is located closest to the country, is also affected by the virus outbreak. To date, 18 cases have been confirmed on the Formosa Island.

With world-class medical actions, the epidemic prevention measures and treatments in Taiwan are successful.

Currently, there are no infected communities in Taiwan, and no confirmed cases have died.

The number of cases is also lower than that in Hong Kong with 49 cases, Singapore with 47 cases, Thailand with  33 cases, as well as Japan and South Korea which has 28 cases respectively.

One China Principle

A statement from TETO mentioned that in addition to fighting the novel Coronavirus outbreak, Taiwan also had to deal with the unreasonable "One China Principle" which stressed that the Formosa Island was part of China.

The principle made the World Health Organization (WHO) to include Taiwan in the "epidemic region of China", causing such countries as Italy and the Philippines to ignore Taiwan's anti-epidemic efforts.

The misunderstanding by WHO that regards Taiwan as part of the epidemic region of China has pushed a number of countries to stop flights from Taiwan, and restricted Taiwanese people to enter those countries.

In fact, according to TETO, Taiwan is a non-Chinese region. Sssociating Taiwan with China has been troubling the Taiwanese government and people, as well as foreigners, including 500,000 Indonesians, who live on the Formosa Island.

Reporting by Indonesia Window