EXCLUSIVE| We have no doubt COVID-19 originated in China: Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu

It has been nearly ten months since the pandemic took over the world. The novel coronavirus, numerous reports claim, was originated in China's Wuhan, and some even claim that the virus is Wuhan lab-made. 

Some reports also accuse China and the World Health Organization (WHO) of covering up the pandemic. However, these accusations have not been proved yet.

Taiwan, however, believes that the virus did originate from China. In an exclusive interview with WION, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan, Joseph Wu, said: "To us, there's no doubt". 

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Dr Wu said that Taiwan reached out to the Chinese health authorities and the WHO in December 2019 when Taiwan's health experts saw some internet reports and videos of patients being treated in isolation which reflected that there was human transmission.

"When we saw some internet discussions in China back in December last year, our health experts in our CDC had got nervous and therefore they sent an email to the World Health Organization and they also sent an email to the Chinese health authorities asking them what is going on."

Taiwan claims that they are sure the virus originated from Wuhan and therefore they started taking precautions against the people coming from China. "We don't have any hesitation. We started checking the passengers coming back from Wuhan onboard. So, to us, there is no doubt that Wuhan is the origin of this pandemic throughout the world."

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He also added that an investigation of where the pandemic is originated from should be conducted, and there should be "international cooperation to see how we can stop the pandemic from spreading."

Is WHO guilty of a cover-up?

When asked if he believes WHO helped China cover up the pandemic, he said, "At the beginning, the WHO did not seem to be identifying the coronavirus as a very serious threat to the international community and the consensus is that when the WHO started to get serious when it was too late."

He also added that he hopes the WHO and all other international communities treat this as a learning lesson. "I think we need to pay attention to any transmittable diseases among human beings in a very serious way to prevent the next wave of pandemic from happening again," he said.

Taiwan has been one of the few countries that has been successful in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus. "Taiwan is one of those countries that seems to be quite successful in dealing with the pandemic, and we want to share our experiences and our know-how in our way of dealing with the other countries," Dr. Wu said.

He also shed light on how Taiwan and India have joined hands and shared experiences with each other in this pandemic. "Our health sectors and our hospitals have some exchanges with some Indian institutions as well, and that proved to be very useful for those Indian institutions in learning our experience."