taiwan visit covid

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Tourism Administration, Republic of China (Taiwan)-Taiwan Tourism Administration's Taiwan Tourism Information Website

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Restrictions on Entering Taiwan:  National Immigration Agency - Restrictions on Entering Taiwan (Chinese)

For the latest Taiwan entry/exit and quarantine information, please refer to the website of the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, Ministry of Health and Welfare:  Taiwan Center for Disease Control - Border Quarantine

Updated COVID-19 Response Actions

From August 15, 2023:

• If you have suspected symptoms of COVID-19 or receive a positive quick test, please follow the "0+n self-health management" approach. Under this system, no quarantine is required, but such individuals should avoid any unnecessary departures from their residence/hotel room and they should wear a mask at all times when they go out. These procedures should be followed until a negative quick test is received, or 5 days after the most recent positive test.
• Individuals with severe risk factors should seek medical attention as soon as possible.

Foreign travelers may obtain tourist visas if they hold foreign passports or travel documents valid for more than six months in the Republic of China for purposes of sightseeing, business, family visits, study or training, medical treatments, or other legitimate activities. Visa requirements included one completed application form, incoming and outgoing travel tickets, one photo, documents verifying the purpose of the visits, and other relevant documents. The Visitor Visa Application Form can be downloaded from the website of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The completed form should be submitted to an Embassies and Mission Abroad of the Republic of China for visa issuances.

For any further information, please visit the website of the Bureau of Consular Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs . For any further questions about visa application, please contact: e-mail: [email protected] , TEL: +886-2-2343-2888.

• Countries eligible for Visa-Exempt Entry
• Countries eligible for Landing Visas
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• ROC Embassies and Missions Abroad
• Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport

Custom hints for Passenger please check Directorate General of Customs' website at  Taipei Customs Office . 

Traveler Luggage Clearance

Foreign Currencies: value over US$10,000 should be declared. New Taiwan Currency: under NT$100,000. A traveler should apply for the permission to the Central Bank for amounts over such value. There is no restriction on the amount of gold that a traveler can bring out of Taiwan; however, a traveler should declare to the customs office. When carrying out gold valued over US$20,000 out of Taiwan, a traveler should apply for an export permit to the Bureau of Foreign Trade, MOEA (Tel : +886-2-2351-0271 ext. 352) and apply for customs clearance to the customs office.

NB: A traveler should register at the customs office counter when bringing out of Taiwan gold, foreign currencies or new taiwan currency in excess of the said amount. (Tel: +886-3-398-2308, +886-3-398-3222)

Inbound Travelers' Luggage Inspection Flow

Last update time：

Taiwan Travel Restrictions

Traveler's COVID-19 vaccination status

Traveling from the United States to Taiwan

Open for vaccinated visitors

COVID-19 testing

Not required

Not required for vaccinated visitors

Restaurants

Open with restrictions

Recommended in enclosed environments and public transportation.

Taiwan entry details and exceptions

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Can I travel to Taiwan from the United States?

Most visitors from the United States, regardless of vaccination status, can enter Taiwan.

Can I travel to Taiwan if I am vaccinated?

Fully vaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Taiwan without restrictions.

Can I travel to Taiwan without being vaccinated?

Unvaccinated visitors from the United States can enter Taiwan without restrictions.

Do I need a COVID test to enter Taiwan?

Visitors from the United States are not required to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test or antigen result upon entering Taiwan.

Can I travel to Taiwan without quarantine?

Travelers from the United States are not required to quarantine.

Do I need to wear a mask in Taiwan?

Mask usage in Taiwan is recommended in enclosed environments and public transportation.

Are the restaurants and bars open in Taiwan?

Restaurants in Taiwan are open with restrictions. Bars in Taiwan are .

• News & Events

(Updated on 10/5) Entry restrictions for foreigners to Taiwan in response to COVID-19 outbreak

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Taiwan opens borders to tourists as restrictions eased after 2.5 years

Entry rules to island lifted to allow unfettered access, while mainland China remains one of the few places keeping borders closed

Taiwan lifted all its Covid-19 entry restrictions on Thursday, allowing tourists unfettered access the self-ruled island after more than 2.5 years of border controls.

Hong Kong and Taiwan, together with mainland China, required most visitors to complete a mandatory quarantine period throughout the pandemic, even as most countries reopened their borders to tourists.

Visitors are no longer required to quarantine upon entry, or take any PCR tests. Instead, they will need to monitor their health for a week after arriving, and obtain a negative result on a rapid antigen test the day they arrive.

If people want to go out during the weeklong monitoring period, they need a negative test from either that day or the day before. There are also no longer any restrictions on certain nationalities being allowed to enter Taiwan.

Dozens of visitors from Thailand were among the first to arrive under the new rules at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport, which serves the capital Taipei, on a Tiger Air flight that landed shortly after midnight.

Tourists like 32-year-old Mac Chientachakul and his parents were excited to visit the island.

“Hot pot is my favourite dish in Taiwan,” Chientachakul said. “It’s my first thing to do … I miss it so much.”

Sonia Chang, a travel agent, said the changes are good for the tourism industry and Taiwanese residents, who can now travel abroad without having to quarantine when they get home.

Valaisurang Bhaedhayajibh, a 53-year-old business development director of a design firm, called the new rules convenient.

“We don’t have to do the test before coming here, and also after arriving,” he said. “We are still required to do the self-test every two days, and everything has been provided” by Taiwanese authorities, including the rapid testing kits.

At a welcome ceremony in the Taoyuan airport’s arrival hall, the travellers from Thailand were met by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau’s director, Chang Shi-chung, who handed out gifts.

Taiwan’s tourism bureau estimated that a total of 244 tourists from 20 tour groups will arrive Thursday.

With both Hong Kong and Taiwan getting rid of restrictions and welcoming back tourists, mainland China remains one of the few places in the world keeping borders closed and sticking to a “zero-Covid” strategy. Hong Kong ended its mandatory quarantine policy for inbound travellers late last month, requiring just a three-day self-monitoring period.

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Tue, Dec 28, 2021 page2

Covid-19: digital vaccination travel certificates now available, jabbed and ready: as the european commission recognizes taiwan’s digital certificate as equivalent to the eu’s, it can be used in 60 countries, the cecc said.

• By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter

People can start applying for the Taiwan Digital COVID-19 Certificate from 8am today, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday.

Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said people can apply online at https://dvc.mohw.gov.tw for the certificate, which has been recognized by the European Commission as equivalent to the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

The Taiwanese digital certificate would be issued mostly to people who need to travel abroad, he said.

Taiwan’s digital COVID-19 certificate is recognized by European Commission as equivalent to the EU’s version, meaning it can be used in 60 countries and territories.

Photo courtesy of CEEC

As of Wednesday last week, 60 countries and territories — including 27 EU member states — have joined the EU’s digital certificate system, meaning that Taiwanese digital certificate-holders can use it in those places, the CECC said.

The US also recognizes the EU system as proof of COVID-19 vaccination for people traveling to the US by air, while the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced that the EU certificate and can be linked with the IATA Travel Pass as proof of vaccination.

Ministry of Health and Welfare Department of Information Management Director Parng I-ming (龐一鳴), who is deputy head of the CECC’s information management division, said that countries that joined the EU system have mutually recognized COVID-19 certificates, which contain a QR code with a digital signature to ensure it is valid and authentic.

Parng said the certificate also meets three requirements of the EU General Data Protection Regulation: minimum exposure of personal data, right to data portability and right to be forgotten.

People can present the certificate in digital or paper form, either by downloading it onto a device such as a smartphone or printing it out.

The Taiwanese certificate does not display a holder’s ID card number, he said, adding that essential information, such as names, birthdates and vaccination or test status, is verified by scanning the QR code.

The code can be validated offline, so that necessary information remains on the certificate and is not stored or retained when a certificate is verified in a visited country, he added.

Parng said that people can apply for the certificate in three steps, but it is only available to people who have a valid passport.

First, Taiwanese must provide their passport number, along with one of three other identification methods: a national ID card number and National Health Insurance (NHI) number; a Citizen Digital Certificate; or a Fast Identity Online authentication ID, he said.

Foreigners must provide their unified identification number on their Alien Resident Certificate, along with either one of the three other IDs: an NHI number, entry-and-exit permit number or passport number, he said.

Second, an applicant selects whether they want to be issued a “vaccination certificate” or a “test result certificate,” Parng said.

Third, they choose to download the certificate or print it, he said, adding that the site can also generate a serial number for users to print a certificate at a convenience store.

Information on how to apply for the digital certificate can be found on the ministry’s Web site at https://covid19.mohw.gov.tw/ch/np-5345-205.html.

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Doctors warn after man loses hips to vitamin d, air force set to receive 66 f-16v jets over two years, fireworks shows to usher in new year nationwide, coast guard drives chinese tugboats from southern coast, local firms shunning china: report.

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An alcoholic man, who took three vitamin D tablets per day in a bid to arrest worsening hip osteonecrosis, ended up with severe kidney damage, Taichung-based doctors said on Friday, as they urged the public to follow the instructions when using medicine. The man surnamed Chang (張), 48, a heavy drinker who has femoral head avascular necrosis, had both hips replaced, said Chen Cheng-kuo (陳政國), a gastroenterologist at Asia University Hospital. Hearing from a friend that vitamin D was good for bones, the man started taking over-the-counter supplements, but used two to three tablets a day, although the recommended dosage was one

By Chen Chien-chih and Jonathan Chin

DEFENSE: The US originally approved the sale of the Block 70 jets in 2019, and since then the military has invested NT$140.2 billion into upgrading its existing Block 20 jets The air force would receive 66 more F-16V Block 70 jets in the next two years, and would send 65 pilots to the US for specialized tactical training, a source said yesterday. All of the air force’s 140 F-16V Block 20 fighters in active service have already been upgraded with newer equipment, and the air force would acquire more advanced Block 70 jets beginning this year, the source said. The newer jets would be deployed at bases in Taitung County to counter the threat of a Chinese attack on Taiwan’s east coast, the source added. The US originally approved the sale

By Aaron Tu and William Hetherington

Celebrities, singers and dancers are to entertain New Year’s revelers across Taiwan to say goodbye to 2023 and celebrate the arrival of the new year. In New Taipei City, the city government said it would have the earliest New Year’s Eve fireworks display in Taiwan, which is scheduled to begin at 8:24pm across the Tamsui River (淡水河) estuary. A fireworks display of 13 minutes and 14 seconds is planned with eight segments, including an image of a dragon to mark the upcoming Year of the Dragon, it said. Performances and market fairs are to take place from 3pm in Tamsui (淡水) and

A coast guard patrol vessel early on Tuesday drove away Chinese tugboats that were sailing about 4 nautical miles (7.4km) off Taiwan’s southern coast, the Coast Guard Administration said, rejecting a report that at least one of the ships came within a record 3 nautical miles. The online airspace tracker Taiwan ADIZ early on Tuesday posted a map from the Maritime and Port Bureau showing the Chinese tugboat Ning Hai Tuo 5001 (寧海拖5001) sailing a reported 2.61 nautical miles east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) at about 4am. The boat has been sailing with another tugboat, the Yuan Chen (遠辰), towing a work pontoon. However,

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Taiwan reopens to tourists after scrapping COVID rules

Self-ruled island allows visitors quarantine-free entry for first time in more than two and a half years.

Taiwan has reopened to tourists en masse after lifting some of the world’s longest-lasting pandemic border controls.

Visitors began arriving on the island on Thursday without the need for quarantine or PCR tests for the first time in more than two and a half years.

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Taiwanese officials welcomed the first group of visitors arriving on a flight from Bangkok shortly after midnight at the island’s main international airport near Taipei.

Tourism Bureau Director-General Chang Shi-chung told reporters the island’s reopening was a chance to “bring back to life and rebuild cross-border tourism”.

Taiwan is the last major economy to lift COVID-19 quarantine apart from mainland China, which has stuck to an ultra-strict “zero COVID” policy despite the global trend towards living with the virus. Japan and Hong Kong recently dropped pandemic-related border restrictions as part of efforts to revive their battered travel industries.

Visitors to the self-governing island had been required to spend three days in isolation after authorities earlier this year cut the quarantine period from 10 and then seven days.

Under the new border arrangements, visitors are still required to monitor their health for seven days and take rapid antigen tests.

The island recorded relatively few COVID cases until the highly infectious Omicron variant and its sub-variants began spreading locally in January.

Despite reporting more than 6.5 million infections since then, more than 99.5 percent of cases have been mild or asymptomatic, according to Taiwan’s health authorities.

Update April 12, 2024

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Taiwan Travel Advisory

Travel advisory july 11, 2023, taiwan - level 1: exercise normal precautions.

Reissued after periodic review with minor edits.

Exercise normal precautions in Taiwan.

Read the  Taiwan International Travel Information  page for additional information on travel to Taiwan.

If you decide to travel to Taiwan:

• Follow the U.S. Department of State on  Facebook  and  Twitter .
• Enroll in the  Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP)  to receive Alerts and make it easier to locate you in an emergency.
• Review the  security report for Taiwan  from the Overseas Security Advisory Council.
• Prepare a contingency plan for emergency situations. Review the  Traveler’s Checklist .
• Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) page for the latest  Travel Health Information  related to your travel.

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Taiwan Traveler View

Travel health notices, vaccines and medicines, non-vaccine-preventable diseases, stay healthy and safe.

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After Your Trip

There are no notices currently in effect for Taiwan.

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Check the vaccines and medicines list and visit your doctor at least a month before your trip to get vaccines or medicines you may need. If you or your doctor need help finding a location that provides certain vaccines or medicines, visit the Find a Clinic page.

Routine vaccines

Recommendations.

Make sure you are up-to-date on all routine vaccines before every trip. Some of these vaccines include

• Chickenpox (Varicella)
• Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis
• Flu (influenza)
• Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR)

Immunization schedules

All eligible travelers should be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines. Please see  Your COVID-19 Vaccination  for more information. 

COVID-19 vaccine

Hepatitis A

Recommended for unvaccinated travelers one year old or older going to Taiwan.

Infants 6 to 11 months old should also be vaccinated against Hepatitis A. The dose does not count toward the routine 2-dose series.

Travelers allergic to a vaccine component or who are younger than 6 months should receive a single dose of immune globulin, which provides effective protection for up to 2 months depending on dosage given.

Unvaccinated travelers who are over 40 years old, immunocompromised, or have chronic medical conditions planning to depart to a risk area in less than 2 weeks should get the initial dose of vaccine and at the same appointment receive immune globulin.

Hepatitis A - CDC Yellow Book

Dosing info - Hep A

Hepatitis B

Recommended for unvaccinated travelers of all ages traveling to Taiwan.

Hepatitis B - CDC Yellow Book

Dosing info - Hep B

Japanese Encephalitis

Recommended for travelers who

• Are moving to an area with Japanese encephalitis to live
• Spend long periods of time, such as a month or more, in areas with Japanese encephalitis
• Frequently travel to areas with Japanese encephalitis

Consider vaccination for travelers

• Spending less than a month in areas with Japanese encephalitis but will be doing activities that increase risk of infection, such as visiting rural areas, hiking or camping, or staying in places without air conditioning, screens, or bed nets
• Going to areas with Japanese encephalitis who are uncertain of their activities or how long they will be there

Not recommended for travelers planning short-term travel to urban areas or travel to areas with no clear Japanese encephalitis season. 

Japanese encephalitis - CDC Yellow Book

Japanese Encephalitis Vaccine for US Children

Cases of measles are on the rise worldwide. Travelers are at risk of measles if they have not been fully vaccinated at least two weeks prior to departure, or have not had measles in the past, and travel internationally to areas where measles is spreading.

All international travelers should be fully vaccinated against measles with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, including an early dose for infants 6–11 months, according to  CDC’s measles vaccination recommendations for international travel .

Measles (Rubeola) - CDC Yellow Book

Taiwan is free of dog rabies. However, rabies may still be present in wildlife species, particularly bats. CDC recommends rabies vaccination before travel only for people working directly with wildlife. These people may include veterinarians, animal handlers, field biologists, or laboratory workers working with specimens from mammalian species.

Rabies - CDC Yellow Book

Avoid contaminated water

Leptospirosis

How most people get sick (most common modes of transmission)

• Touching urine or other body fluids from an animal infected with leptospirosis
• Swimming or wading in urine-contaminated fresh water, or contact with urine-contaminated mud
• Drinking water or eating food contaminated with animal urine
• Avoid contaminated water and soil

Clinical Guidance

Avoid bug bites.

• Mosquito bite
• Avoid Bug Bites

Airborne & droplet

Avian/bird flu.

• Being around, touching, or working with infected poultry, such as visiting poultry farms or live-animal markets
• Avoid domestic and wild poultry
• Breathing in air or accidentally eating food contaminated with the urine, droppings, or saliva of infected rodents
• Bite from an infected rodent
• Less commonly, being around someone sick with hantavirus (only occurs with Andes virus)
• Avoid rodents and areas where they live
• Avoid sick people

Tuberculosis (TB)

• Breathe in TB bacteria that is in the air from an infected and contagious person coughing, speaking, or singing.

Learn actions you can take to stay healthy and safe on your trip. Vaccines cannot protect you from many diseases in Taiwan, so your behaviors are important.

Eat and drink safely

Food and water standards around the world vary based on the destination. Standards may also differ within a country and risk may change depending on activity type (e.g., hiking versus business trip). You can learn more about safe food and drink choices when traveling by accessing the resources below.

• Choose Safe Food and Drinks When Traveling
• Water Treatment Options When Hiking, Camping or Traveling
• Global Water, Sanitation and Hygiene | Healthy Water
• Avoid Contaminated Water During Travel

You can also visit the Department of State Country Information Pages for additional information about food and water safety.

Prevent bug bites

Bugs (like mosquitoes, ticks, and fleas) can spread a number of diseases in Taiwan. Many of these diseases cannot be prevented with a vaccine or medicine. You can reduce your risk by taking steps to prevent bug bites.

What can I do to prevent bug bites?

• Cover exposed skin by wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and hats.
• Use an appropriate insect repellent (see below).
• Use permethrin-treated clothing and gear (such as boots, pants, socks, and tents). Do not use permethrin directly on skin.
• Stay and sleep in air-conditioned or screened rooms.
• Use a bed net if the area where you are sleeping is exposed to the outdoors.

What type of insect repellent should I use?

• FOR PROTECTION AGAINST TICKS AND MOSQUITOES: Use a repellent that contains 20% or more DEET for protection that lasts up to several hours.
• Picaridin (also known as KBR 3023, Bayrepel, and icaridin)
• Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or para-menthane-diol (PMD)
• 2-undecanone
• Always use insect repellent as directed.

What should I do if I am bitten by bugs?

• Avoid scratching bug bites, and apply hydrocortisone cream or calamine lotion to reduce the itching.
• Check your entire body for ticks after outdoor activity. Be sure to remove ticks properly.

What can I do to avoid bed bugs?

Although bed bugs do not carry disease, they are an annoyance. See our information page about avoiding bug bites for some easy tips to avoid them. For more information on bed bugs, see Bed Bugs .

For more detailed information on avoiding bug bites, see Avoid Bug Bites .

Stay safe outdoors

If your travel plans in Taiwan include outdoor activities, take these steps to stay safe and healthy during your trip.

• Stay alert to changing weather conditions and adjust your plans if conditions become unsafe.
• Prepare for activities by wearing the right clothes and packing protective items, such as bug spray, sunscreen, and a basic first aid kit.
• Consider learning basic first aid and CPR before travel. Bring a travel health kit with items appropriate for your activities.
• If you are outside for many hours in heat, eat salty snacks and drink water to stay hydrated and replace salt lost through sweating.
• Protect yourself from UV radiation : use sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, wear protective clothing, and seek shade during the hottest time of day (10 a.m.–4 p.m.).
• Be especially careful during summer months and at high elevation. Because sunlight reflects off snow, sand, and water, sun exposure may be increased during activities like skiing, swimming, and sailing.
• Very cold temperatures can be dangerous. Dress in layers and cover heads, hands, and feet properly if you are visiting a cold location.

Stay safe around water

• Swim only in designated swimming areas. Obey lifeguards and warning flags on beaches.
• Practice safe boating—follow all boating safety laws, do not drink alcohol if driving a boat, and always wear a life jacket.
• Do not dive into shallow water.
• Do not swim in freshwater in developing areas or where sanitation is poor.
• Avoid swallowing water when swimming. Untreated water can carry germs that make you sick.
• To prevent infections, wear shoes on beaches where there may be animal waste.

Keep away from animals

Most animals avoid people, but they may attack if they feel threatened, are protecting their young or territory, or if they are injured or ill. Animal bites and scratches can lead to serious diseases such as rabies.

Follow these tips to protect yourself:

• Do not touch or feed any animals you do not know.
• Do not allow animals to lick open wounds, and do not get animal saliva in your eyes or mouth.
• Avoid rodents and their urine and feces.
• Traveling pets should be supervised closely and not allowed to come in contact with local animals.
• If you wake in a room with a bat, seek medical care immediately. Bat bites may be hard to see.

All animals can pose a threat, but be extra careful around dogs, bats, monkeys, sea animals such as jellyfish, and snakes. If you are bitten or scratched by an animal, immediately:

• Wash the wound with soap and clean water.
• Go to a doctor right away.
• Tell your doctor about your injury when you get back to the United States.

Consider buying medical evacuation insurance. Rabies is a deadly disease that must be treated quickly, and treatment may not be available in some countries.

Reduce your exposure to germs

Follow these tips to avoid getting sick or spreading illness to others while traveling:

• Wash your hands often, especially before eating.
• If soap and water aren’t available, clean hands with hand sanitizer (containing at least 60% alcohol).
• Don’t touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. If you need to touch your face, make sure your hands are clean.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when coughing or sneezing.
• Try to avoid contact with people who are sick.
• If you are sick, stay home or in your hotel room, unless you need medical care.

Avoid sharing body fluids

Diseases can be spread through body fluids, such as saliva, blood, vomit, and semen.

Protect yourself:

• Use latex condoms correctly.
• Do not inject drugs.
• Limit alcohol consumption. People take more risks when intoxicated.
• Do not share needles or any devices that can break the skin. That includes needles for tattoos, piercings, and acupuncture.
• If you receive medical or dental care, make sure the equipment is disinfected or sanitized.

Know how to get medical care while traveling

Plan for how you will get health care during your trip, should the need arise:

• Carry a list of local doctors and hospitals at your destination.
• Review your health insurance plan to determine what medical services it would cover during your trip. Consider purchasing travel health and medical evacuation insurance.
• Carry a card that identifies, in the local language, your blood type, chronic conditions or serious allergies, and the generic names of any medications you take.
• Some prescription drugs may be illegal in other countries. Call Taiwan’s embassy to verify that all of your prescription(s) are legal to bring with you.
• Bring all the medicines (including over-the-counter medicines) you think you might need during your trip, including extra in case of travel delays. Ask your doctor to help you get prescriptions filled early if you need to.

Many foreign hospitals and clinics are accredited by the Joint Commission International. A list of accredited facilities is available at their website ( www.jointcommissioninternational.org ).

In some countries, medicine (prescription and over-the-counter) may be substandard or counterfeit. Bring the medicines you will need from the United States to avoid having to buy them at your destination.

Select safe transportation

Motor vehicle crashes are the #1 killer of healthy US citizens in foreign countries.

In many places cars, buses, large trucks, rickshaws, bikes, people on foot, and even animals share the same lanes of traffic, increasing the risk for crashes.

Be smart when you are traveling on foot.

• Use sidewalks and marked crosswalks.
• Pay attention to the traffic around you, especially in crowded areas.
• Remember, people on foot do not always have the right of way in other countries.

Riding/Driving

Choose a safe vehicle.

• Choose official taxis or public transportation, such as trains and buses.
• Ride only in cars that have seatbelts.
• Avoid overcrowded, overloaded, top-heavy buses and minivans.
• Avoid riding on motorcycles or motorbikes, especially motorbike taxis. (Many crashes are caused by inexperienced motorbike drivers.)
• Choose newer vehicles—they may have more safety features, such as airbags, and be more reliable.
• Choose larger vehicles, which may provide more protection in crashes.

Think about the driver.

• Do not drive after drinking alcohol or ride with someone who has been drinking.
• Consider hiring a licensed, trained driver familiar with the area.
• Arrange payment before departing.

Follow basic safety tips.

• Wear a seatbelt at all times.
• Sit in the back seat of cars and taxis.
• When on motorbikes or bicycles, always wear a helmet. (Bring a helmet from home, if needed.)
• Avoid driving at night; street lighting in certain parts of Taiwan may be poor.
• Do not use a cell phone or text while driving (illegal in many countries).
• Travel during daylight hours only, especially in rural areas.
• If you choose to drive a vehicle in Taiwan, learn the local traffic laws and have the proper paperwork.
• Get any driving permits and insurance you may need. Get an International Driving Permit (IDP). Carry the IDP and a US-issued driver's license at all times.
• Check with your auto insurance policy's international coverage, and get more coverage if needed. Make sure you have liability insurance.
• Avoid using local, unscheduled aircraft.
• If possible, fly on larger planes (more than 30 seats); larger airplanes are more likely to have regular safety inspections.
• Try to schedule flights during daylight hours and in good weather.

Medical Evacuation Insurance

If you are seriously injured, emergency care may not be available or may not meet US standards. Trauma care centers are uncommon outside urban areas. Having medical evacuation insurance can be helpful for these reasons.

Helpful Resources

Road Safety Overseas (Information from the US Department of State): Includes tips on driving in other countries, International Driving Permits, auto insurance, and other resources.

The Association for International Road Travel has country-specific Road Travel Reports available for most countries for a minimal fee.

Maintain personal security

Use the same common sense traveling overseas that you would at home, and always stay alert and aware of your surroundings.

Before you leave

• Research your destination(s), including local laws, customs, and culture.
• Monitor travel advisories and alerts and read travel tips from the US Department of State.
• Enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) .
• Leave a copy of your itinerary, contact information, credit cards, and passport with someone at home.
• Pack as light as possible, and leave at home any item you could not replace.

While at your destination(s)

• Carry contact information for the nearest US embassy or consulate .
• Carry a photocopy of your passport and entry stamp; leave the actual passport securely in your hotel.
• Follow all local laws and social customs.
• Do not wear expensive clothing or jewelry.
• Always keep hotel doors locked, and store valuables in secure areas.
• If possible, choose hotel rooms between the 2nd and 6th floors.

Healthy Travel Packing List

Use the Healthy Travel Packing List for Taiwan for a list of health-related items to consider packing for your trip. Talk to your doctor about which items are most important for you.

Why does CDC recommend packing these health-related items?

It’s best to be prepared to prevent and treat common illnesses and injuries. Some supplies and medicines may be difficult to find at your destination, may have different names, or may have different ingredients than what you normally use.

If you are not feeling well after your trip, you may need to see a doctor. If you need help finding a travel medicine specialist, see Find a Clinic . Be sure to tell your doctor about your travel, including where you went and what you did on your trip. Also tell your doctor if you were bitten or scratched by an animal while traveling.

For more information on what to do if you are sick after your trip, see Getting Sick after Travel .

Map Disclaimer - The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement are generally marked.

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Taiwan to end Covid-19 quarantine from Oct 13; S'poreans can now enter without a visa

Taiwan has confirmed that it will end its mandatory Covid-19 quarantine for travellers from Oct 13, in its latest step to reopen to tourists. 

The date  was first floated last week amid a string of other announcements to ease the island’s strict border control measures, including the end of polymerase chain reaction tests for travellers arriving on the island. 

On Thursday, the island also resumed visa-free entry for citizens of countries that previously had that status, including Singapore. 

Despite doing away with quarantine, travellers will still be required to monitor their health and take antigen rapid tests over a seven-day period. They will each be given four antigen rapid test kits at the airport on arrival. 

The tests are self-administered and travellers can go out as long as they have a negative test result within two days. Travellers do not need to report their temperatures.

Vaccination checks are not required, but travellers are required to don masks at all times while in public. Also, buying Covid insurance is not necessary. If travellers test positive, they should see a doctor and then stay in isolation in either a quarantine facility or at home.

“It is about time measures were lifted for inbound tourists,” Associate Professor Huang Cheng-tsung of the tourism department at Providence University in Taichung told The Straits Times.

“The number of Covid-19 cases detected on arrival usually makes up a tiny fraction of Taiwan’s total daily cases, so it would have a limited impact on healthcare services. There is really no need to restrict the entry and exit of travellers,” he said. 

On Wednesday, the health authorities reported more than 48,400 local daily Covid-19 infections and 192 imported cases. 

Taiwan is one of the last remaining economies in Asia that still has quarantine rules in place, although in June it cut the number of days travellers are required to be in isolation from seven to three. 

The gradual easing of restrictions is part of what the island calls the “new Taiwan model”, which strives towards coexistence with the virus without shutting down the economy. 

Last week, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Facebook that the island has “finally come to the final moment of the pandemic” while posting on the easing of border measures.

She added: “Now, we will do our best to revive tourism, stimulate the economy and lead Taiwan’s economy to great development.”

The pandemic has battered Taiwan’s tourism industry. In 2019, the island saw a record 11.8 million tourists, but the number was a dismal 140,479 last year. 

Mr Hu Fang, 73, who runs a lantern store at the famous tourist spot of Shifen, is among those who cannot wait to see the return of foreign visitors.

Prior to the pandemic, tourists flocked to the quaint railway town to pen their wishes on paper lanterns before releasing them into the sky. 

In the past 2½ years, the alleys lining the iconic train tracks that run through the middle of the town have been eerily quiet. Mr Hu’s store has seen a 90 per cent drop in customers. 

“We’ve had to cope during the pandemic by cutting some workers and shortening our operating hours, but now we’re excited to welcome international tourists again,” he said, adding that he has in recent weeks stocked up on products and retrained his staff.

While borders were closed to tourists, many travel industry workers pivoted to other sectors – a problem hotels and travel agencies are now grappling with as they compete to boost staffing. 

Lion Travel, one of Taiwan’s largest travel agencies, has been on a recruitment drive since May, trying to bring the size of its workforce to at least 80 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels. 

Before the pandemic, the company had around 3,600 workers, but the number has since whittled down to 1,600. 

“We’re really looking at ways to entice people to come back to the industry,” Mr Eagle Wang, the firm’s general manager, said without providing details. 

“Covid-19 hit us hard, but we also used that opportunity to think of new ideas to make Taiwan an attractive tourist destination,”  he added. 

These included working with Taiwanese indigenous groups and independent food sellers across the island to debut new railway travel routes.

“We really bulked up our domestic tourism offerings during the pandemic because the borders were shut, but we figured that these would be interesting for international tourists too,” Mr Wang said. “Many foreigners usually visit only Taipei, but we really want to show them that there is so much more outside of the city.”

Luxury hotel chains, including Mandarin Oriental, Taipei as well as the LDC Hotels & Resorts Group that runs nine properties across the island, said they, too, are doubling down on efforts to hire workers as borders reopen. 

Mandarin Oriental, Taipei is eager to bring staffing strength back to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, as 80 per cent of its room guests used to be international travellers. 

LDC Hotels has seen a 30 per cent reduction of staff in its housekeeping and catering divisions, but the group is optimistic that things will return to the way they were before. 

“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are always adaptable,” said a spokesman for LDC Hotels.

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Tourists flock to Taiwan as COVID entry restrictions eased

Taiwan lifted all its COVID-19 entry restrictions on Thursday, allowing tourists unfettered access to the self-ruled island after over 2 1/2 years of border controls.

Hong Kong and Taiwan, together with mainland China, required most visitors to complete a mandatory quarantine period throughout the pandemic, even as most countries reopened their borders to tourists.

Visitors are no longer required to quarantine upon entry, or take any PCR tests. Instead, they will need to monitor their health for a week after arriving, and obtain a negative result on a rapid antigen test the day they arrive. If people want to go out during the weeklong monitoring period, they need a negative test from either that day or the day before.

There are also no longer any restrictions on certain nationalities being allowed to enter Taiwan.

Dozens of visitors from Thailand were among the first to arrive under the new rules at Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport, which serves the capital Taipei, on a Tiger Air flight that landed shortly after midnight.

Tourists like 32-year-old Mac Chientachakul and his parents were excited to visit the island.

"Hot pot is my favourite dish in Taiwan," Chientachakul said. "It's my first thing to do ... I miss it so much."

Sonia Chang, a travel agent, said the changes are good for both the the tourism industry and Taiwanese residents, who can now travel abroad without having to quarantine when they get home.

Valaisurang Bhaedhayajibh, a 53-year-old business development director of a design firm, called the new rules convenient.

"We don't have to do the test before coming here, and also after arriving," he said. "We are still required to do the self-test every two days, and everything has been provided" by Taiwanese authorities, including the rapid testing kits.

At a welcome ceremony in the Taoyuan airport's arrival hall, the travellers from Thailand were met by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau's director, Chang Shi-chung, who handed out gifts.

Taiwan's tourism bureau estimated that a total of 244 tourists from some 20 tour groups will arrive Thursday.

With both Hong Kong and Taiwan getting rid of restrictions and welcoming back tourists, mainland China remains one of the few places in the world adamant in keeping borders closed and sticking to a "zero-COVID" strategy to stamp out the virus. Hong Kong ended its mandatory quarantine policy for inbound travellers late last month, requiring just a three-day self-monitoring period.

Associated Press writer Zen Soo contributed from Singapore.

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Follow our news, recent searches, tourism, businesses cheer as taiwan reopens borders for international travel, advertisement.

Travel agencies have seen an uptick in bookings, and airlines are adding flights to accommodate the soaring demand to and from Taiwan

A mascot and an official welcome a group of passengers from Thailand at Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan on Oct 13, 2022, after Taiwan reopened its borders by ending mandatory COVID-19 quarantine for arrivals. (Photo: AFP/Daniel CENG)

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Darrelle Ng

TAIPEI: Businesses – particularly those in tourism – are already seeing a boost in sales as Taiwan welcomed the return of tourists on Thursday (Oct 13), after easing some of the world’s most stringent COVID-19 border curbs.

Travellers started trickling into Taoyuan International Airport shortly after midnight, as the territory scrapped its quarantine and isolation rules.

Visitors, however, are still required to wear their masks, show proof of vaccination, take rapid COVID-19 tests and monitor their health for seven days.  

“I’m just glad that we don’t have to worry about (quarantine) now, (and we can) just spend time with our families and experience Taiwan,” said a tourist who arrived early Thursday morning at the Taoyuan International Airport, which was bustling with travellers for the first time in more than two years.  

Since the reopening announcement two weeks ago, travel agencies have seen an uptick in bookings. Airlines are also adding flights to accommodate the soaring demand.

Mr Eddy Lan, an assistant vice president at Hsi Hung Travel Service Co, said that tour bookings have increased by 20 per cent.

His agency, along with others in the tourism sector, had been roughing it out over the past two years, with sharp drops in revenue as the island closed its borders during the pandemic.

“Overseas travel accounts for 90 per cent of our company’s business. (The pandemic has forced us) to cut our staff members from 500 to around 170 or 180 today. The entire business had literally dropped down to zero,” said Mr Lan, 54.

MANY TRAVELLING DESPITE HIGHER EXPENSES

As one of the last places to lift COVID-19 restrictions, Taiwanese itching to travel abroad have flocked to tour agencies and snapped up plane tickets.

Travel agencies said that some of their packages are selling out, especially to popular destinations like Japan and South Korea. This is despite prices jumping 30 to 40 per cent higher than before the pandemic due to increased airfares and costs.  

About 17 million Taiwanese travelled overseas in 2019, but the number dropped by 98 per cent last year.

Taiwan’s tourism industry accounted for about 4 to 5 per cent of the island’s gross domestic product (GDP) before the pandemic.

As the number of inbound travellers plunged by more than 90 per cent in the past two years, many tourism-dependent companies have been put out of business.

But as global airlines continue to increase flights to and from the island with the reopening, Mr Lan expects the tourism industry to gain momentum and return to the pre-pandemic levels soon.

“I estimate that the earliest for the tourism industry to return to pre-pandemic level would be the second half of next year, and the latest would be 2024,” he said.

BUSINESSES EAGER TO SEE RETURN OF TOURISTS

Tourism is not the only sector that has been eagerly awaiting the reopening – a recent survey showed that 91 per cent of companies in Taiwan believe it is important to reopen borders.

Many businesses, especially hotels and restaurants, told CNA that they are eager to see the return of tourists, with some retailers working extra hours to stock up on products ahead of the reopening to meet an expected increase in demand.

According to health authorities, the decision to reopen now comes after more than 70 per cent of Taiwan’s population have taken their booster shots. Taiwan also has a sufficient supply of vaccines, rapid test kits and medication for patients.

REOPENING COULD AFFECT ELECTIONS

But the timing to ease border restrictions surprised some political observers, who had expected President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration to reopen only after local elections on Nov 26, as any spike in COVID-19 cases could potentially affect her party’s performance at the polls.

Last week, Taiwan’s infection number was increasing by about 44,000 a day, among the highest in the world.

“Once the borders are reopened, its high infection rate could persist and that (will) put a lot of pressure on the DPP when the elections are near,” said Professor Chu Chao-Hsian of the National Taiwan Normal University, referring to Ms Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

Delaying the reopening, however, could compromise the economy and frustrate individuals and businesses already weighed down by pandemic fatigue, especially as other economies in the region have pushed ahead with the reopening.

In August, the government cut its growth forecast for this year to 3.76 per cent, down from 6.57 per cent last year, largely due to inflationary pressure and slowing global demand.

There are fears the growth forecast could be revised down again, as September exports drop for the first time in two years and the finance ministry warned of “deepening doubts” on the outlook.  

“The general voters may feel strongly about the deteriorating economy. So reopening borders to get more business opportunities is one of the key reasons for the government to ease border controls,” said Prof Chu.

Based on various polls, the ruling DPP is trailing behind the opposition Kuomintang (KMT). Some estimates showed that the DPP could lose as much as two-thirds of the 22 counties and cities up for grabs, posing a serious threat to its chances of winning the presidency in 2024.

If the reopening manages to boost Taiwan’s economy, it could work in favour of the DPP in the coming vote, said Prof Chu.

Airlines add flights, travel agency bookings spike as Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan ease border restrictions

Travelling overseas? 7 destinations in Asia that have eased COVID-19 entry rules

Travel to pick up as more Asian countries drop border restrictions | Video

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‘This Day Was Bound to Come’: Taiwan Confronts a Covid Flare-Up

The island’s border controls had shielded it from the worst of the pandemic. But new variants and slow vaccinations gave the virus an opening.

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By Raymond Zhong and Amy Chang Chien

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Closed schools and restaurants offering takeout only. Lines around the block at testing sites. Politicians on television urging the public to stay calm.

If the scenes around Taiwan this week have a distinctly early pandemic feel, it is because the coronavirus is only now washing up on the island’s shores in force. A crush of new infections has brought a swift end to the Covid-free normality that residents had been enjoying for more than a year.

By shutting its borders early and requiring two-week quarantines of nearly everyone who arrives from overseas, Taiwan had been managing to keep life on the island mostly unfettered. But all that changed after enough infections slipped past those high walls to cause community outbreaks.

For most of the past week, the government has ordered residents to stay home whenever possible and to wear masks outdoors, though it has not declared a total lockdown. Local authorities are ramping up rapid testing, though some health experts worry that too few tests are being done to stay ahead of the virus’s spread.

Taiwan’s latest numbers — between 200 and 350 new infections a day for the past several days, and a few deaths — are still low by the standards of the hardest-hit countries. On Thursday, it reported 286 new local infections. But the uptick has jolted a population that, until last Saturday, had recorded only 1,290 Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths during the entire pandemic .

Adding to the concern: Only around 1 percent of the island’s 23.5 million residents have been vaccinated against the virus so far.

“This day was bound to come sooner or later,” said Daniel Fu-chang Tsai, a professor at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine. The slow pace of immunizations combined with more transmissible variants to create a perfect “window,” Professor Tsai said, for the island to experience a flare-up.

It did not help, he said, that more people had been leaving their masks at home and abandoning social distancing.

“It’s like Swiss cheese,” Professor Tsai said. “There were a few holes in the front and a big hole in the back. But this time, the blade happened to pierce straight through.”

Before this month, Taiwan had spent the bulk of the pandemic happily shielded from its worst ravages .

Eight months passed last year without a single case of community transmission until an infection in December snapped the streak. Even after that, local infections cropped up only sporadically for months.

Then the tide shifted — gradually, then suddenly.

On April 14 , the government began allowing crew members for Taiwanese airlines to quarantine at home for just three days after arriving on long-haul flights, down from the previous requirement of five days.

A week later, China Airlines, Taiwan’s flag carrier, told the government that one of its pilots had tested positive in Australia. Health officials began expanding testing for airline workers. Soon, more pilots and their family members were testing positive, as were employees at a quarantine hotel .

On May 10, a pilot who had been in the United States tested positive after completing his three-day quarantine, but not before he had visited a pub and a restaurant in Taipei .

All China Airlines crew members were ordered into rolling 14-day home quarantines . But it was probably too late. A cluster of infections began to emerge among workers and patrons at so-called hostess bars in Taipei’s Wanhua District.

By the end of the week, daily case numbers had soared into the triple digits.

So far, the search for new infections has been concentrated in the populous cities of Taipei and New Taipei, where more than 1,600 people can receive rapid testing each day. Hospitals are also providing slower testing services.

Dr. Chiang Kuan-yu, 37, a physician at Taipei City Hospital, went to Wanhua District on Monday to help run a testing site there. He said there had been big crowds over the weekend, when the case numbers first started to rise. Some people had to wait an extra day to get tested.

“Now there are more resources for testing, so we can keep up better,” Dr. Chiang said.

Officials are trying to use test centers efficiently by testing only those who are showing symptoms or may have come in contact with infected people.

Chen Shih-chung , Taiwan’s health minister and head of its Central Epidemic Command Center, has urged those with no Covid-19 symptoms and no history of contact to not even come to testing sites, lest they become infected there.

“This only will slow down our search for possible spreaders,” Mr. Chen said in a news briefing . “Don’t go there thinking, ‘Oh, maybe I’m infected, maybe it’s best that I get tested.’ You absolutely must not come.”

But Dr. Wang Jen-hsien, an infectious disease specialist at China Medical University Hospital in the central Taiwanese city of Taichung, called this an excessively “frugal” approach. He urged the government to consider locking down Wanhua District and testing all residents.

“Before, Taiwan was a safe society. If you tested randomly back then, of course you would endanger public health,” Dr. Wang said. “But now if it’s a high-risk zone, then you can’t do things this way. Your way of thinking has to change.”

Taiwan received its first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in early March , and it has since been gradually immunizing health workers and other priority groups . Officials say doses of the Moderna vaccine will arrive soon. Several Taiwanese companies are also developing vaccines.

Taiwanese authorities began working with domestic vaccine producers in January 2020, after the coronavirus’s genetic sequence was made available and before the Chinese city of Wuhan went into lockdown.

“Taiwan got started extremely early,” said Dr. Ho Mei-shang, a research fellow at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Academia Sinica in Taipei who was involved with the government’s vaccine efforts. “We said at the time, ‘Whatever the vaccine ends up being, we want to make it ourselves as quickly as possible.’”

But Taiwan’s insistence on developing and producing its own immunizations may have made officials less quick to snap up overseas vaccines when those started becoming available, Dr. Ho said.

“And then,” she said, “by the beginning of this year, when the pandemic was so severe in so many countries, we just said we’ll wait a little.”

Even after the AstraZeneca vaccine first became available in Taiwan, the low case count meant many people felt no urgent need to get immunized.

Still, Dr. Ho said she was heartened to see how quickly people in Taiwan were adjusting to the new restrictions on daily life, even after such a carefree past year.

Recently, she went for a run at 10 p.m. and forgot to wear her mask at first. But she noticed that even at that hour, everyone else who was out walking and exercising was masked up.

“This is a state of affairs,” she said, “that really sets Taiwan apart.”

Raymond Zhong is a technology reporter. Before joining The Times in 2017, he covered India's fast-moving economy from New Delhi for The Wall Street Journal. More about Raymond Zhong

Amy Chang Chien covers news in mainland China and Taiwan. She is based in Taipei. More about Amy Chang Chien

Taiwan Is Abandoning Its Zero-COVID Strategy in Favor of a ‘New Model’ of Coronavirus Containment

T aipei is easing COVID-19 curbs even as its daily cases are rising, in a strategy radically different from Beijing’s zero-tolerance policy that has shut down many Chinese cities and sent the economy into a tailspin.

On May 5, Taiwan recorded more than 30,000 new COVID-19 infections—crossing that daily threshold for the first time since the pandemic began. The current wave of infections looks to get worse for the island of 23 million, which has so far registered nearly 232,400 cases—some 215,000 since January—and 886 fatalities.

Daily caseloads are expected to rise even further because of the Omicron variant. Health minister Chen Shih-chung said earlier that Taiwan was on track to record up to 100,000 new infections daily, much more than the initial projection of 45,000.

Yet, in the face of this spike, the government has signaled a shift in the pandemic strategy it has been following for two years, away from virus suppression characterized by draconian travel restrictions, mask-wearing mandates, and fastidious contact tracing. A month into the launch of a “new Taiwanese model” of COVID-19 containment, asymptomatic and mild cases are being isolated at home, save for infected children. Close contacts need only be quarantined for three days instead of the earlier 10. Quarantine for arrivals will be cut down from 10 to just seven days.

Read More: How Hong Kong Became China’s Biggest COVID Problem

Premier Su Tseng-chang said this new approach isn’t exactly living with COVID-19, as the virus “would not be allowed to spread unchecked.” But prevention of the virus from spreading is to be balanced with reopening the economy and allowing people to live normally, he emphasized. There would be no stringent lockdowns, Su told reporters on May 1. Health officials are to focus on minimizing severe cases and maintaining “effective control” of mild or asymptomatic ones.

On the other side of the Taiwanese Strait, the zero-COVID policy has seen drastic restrictions on normal life. Entire cities in mainland China have been locked down for weeks. Ports and factories have had their operations suspended. Health apps on mobile phones govern access to transport and public facilities. Though curbs are now being loosened in Hong Kong, harsh travel restrictions over the past two years have temporarily reduced the proud aviation hub and freewheeling financial center to a shadow of its former self.

Experts say Taiwan must find its own approach given the highly transmissible nature of the Omicron variant. “Any containment protocol has to be dynamically revised according to the situation of the epidemic or other characteristics of this virus,” says Chen Chien-jen, who was Taiwan’s vice-president from 2016 to 2020 and is an epidemiologist by training.

Why Taiwan put off moving away from zero-COVID

Taiwan has successfully fended off COVID-19 outbreaks in the past. The island banned flights from across the strait in January 2020, immediately after the virus was detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Swift tracing of close contacts, mass testing, and a centralized mask distribution system helped Taiwan avoid a lockdown, save for some soft curbs a year ago to control an outbreak of the Alpha variant.

Last summer, Taiwan’s COVID-19 response was again put to the test in the face of hundreds of new infections. At the time, the island was struggling to source COVID-19 vaccines and only 3% of its eligible population was vaccinated. New arrivals were required to undergo a 14-day quarantine, and strict contact-tracing policies were imposed on restaurants, stores and other businesses. Taiwan’s COVID-19 cases ballooned to around 11,000 by June 2021 and more than 800 people died during the wave.

Taiwan also began rolling out its locally developed vaccines around the same time. Chen tells TIME that a high vaccination rate, and the availability of rapid testing and antiviral therapies, had to be in place before Taiwan could move away from its de facto zero-COVID policy. The island has now vaccinated 79% of its population, secured some 40 million test kits , and will have obtained 700,000 courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 drug, Paxlovid, by June. Around 180,000 courses have already been distributed to hospitals and pharmacies.

Read More: Global Shortages Loom as China Lockdowns Continue

There has been some vaccine resistance among Taiwan’s elderly. “There will still be groups who feel that since they had almost no chance of getting the virus when Taiwan had no cases, [they don’t] need to get the vaccine now”, says Wayne Soon, a history professor at Vassar College in New York, who studies medical ideas and practices in East Asia. But COVID-19 immunization among those aged 75 and above has now reached 72.5%, with nearly 60% in the same age group having received a booster.

In Hong Kong, by comparison, only around 25% of those aged 80 and above were vaccinated by January, just before a massive surge in infections. This led to many severe cases, overwhelming the health care system. Roughly 9,300 people have died of COVID in the territory, with 98% of those fatalities occurring in the latest, Omicron-driven outbreak. Over 95% of those who died were aged 60 and above.

Hong Kong, too, appears to be walking back its previous zero-COVID protocols, with curbs easing on businesses and travel. Huang Yanzhong, a global health policy expert at the Council on Foreign Relations tells TIME that Hong Kong can likewise expect numbers to surge as regulations are loosened, but cases should be asymptomatic or mild—as are 99% of the cases in Taiwan’s current wave of infection.

“You cannot expect to move away from zero-COVID unless they experience this stage, this feature, this spike in cases, including the severe cases and also the mortality rate,” Huang says. “But that can be managed. That transition can be achieved [at] a manageable level.”

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The red flags that will tell us when China's actually ready to invade Taiwan

• A host of warning signs point to China preparing for military action against Taiwan.
• Experts say China could be readying for a showdown over the island.
• US involvement, and Chinese leader Xi's goals, also factor into the timeline.

Tensions between China and Taiwan are reaching a boiling point, and many signs point to Chinese military action to seize the island by force, possibly in just a few years.

While a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be an incredibly complex and dangerous operation, influential China watchers are sounding the alarms over preparations almost certainly needed to seize the island — a buildup of China's naval forces, energy and food stockpiles, and large-scale military drills just off its coast.

"I don't think they lack for anything that they need," Lyle Goldstein, director of Asia engagement at Defense Priorities, said of China's forces. "You could always ask the question, 'Could they be more ready?' and I suppose there are some certain areas, but I, for a long time, maintained they have what they need to undertake the campaign."

What China needs for an all-out attack

China has pushed a rapid modernization of its armed forces over the past two decades that has alarmed US military officials and opened China leader Xi Jinping's options for how to reunify Taiwan, the democratic island of 24 million that Beijing views as a breakaway. China's navy, for example, has surpassed the size of the US fleet and its shipbuilding capacity is easily the largest in the world.

But there are questions around the quality of China's warships despite the sheer numbers, and whether it has the capacity for an amphibious assault against Taiwan's advanced weapons.

Taiwan's Ministry of Defense assessed in 2021 that China "lacks the landing vehicles and logistics required to launch an incursion into Taiwan." The US Department of Defense largely concurred , and the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission wrote something similar in its 2020 report, noting that while China had a "shortage of amphibious lift, or ships and aircraft capable of transporting troops the [Chinese military] needs to successfully subjugate the island," the PLA was looking into using civilian vessels to supplement that.

Chinese ships and aircraft that try to invade or blockade the island into submission would be highly vulnerable to Taiwan's arsenal of advanced weapons like F-16 fighter jets, Patriot missile batteries, and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The question is whether China has built an invasion force that can sustain the damage from these weapons in what would be the first amphibious invasion in seven decades.

Others have seen signs that China is corralling the civilian shipping needed to meet the heavy material needs of an amphibious invasion armada.

Thomas Shugart, a former US Navy submarine commander who's now an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security think tank, wrote for War on the Rocks in August 2021 that "Chinese leaders have already begun organizing civilian shipping into auxiliary units of the military," highlighting examples of large roll-on/roll-off ferries being employed in amphibious assault exercises, something Chinese media later confirmed, and adding that the civilian vessels were carrying both Marine Corps and ground force units.

While these ferries aren't necessarily designed for landing assault troops, Shugart noted, they are built to carry a large number of people, load ground forces quickly and with little warning, disembark their troops, and return for more; the US military also has fast-transport vessels and cargo ships to support operations.

"The evidence shows that these fleets are all ready to mobilize, really at a moment's notice," Goldstein said. "China has the biggest ports in the world and they're full of these ships, so putting them together into fleets to make this attack would be very quick, within days."

Xi is a year-and-a-half into his third term as China's leader, and many of his recent moves suggest China is preparing for war. Xi successfully consolidated control over Hong Kong in 2020, and may have his eyes on a bigger prize.

In March, China dropped "peaceful reunification" when referring to Taiwan and announced a 7.2% increase in defense spending. Food and energy security, like petroleum reserves, have been stockpiled for years. New laws around civilian mobilization and economic self-reliance indicate Xi is preparing his people and the Chinese economy for the possibility of war. Military forces are being deployed nearer to Taiwan than ever, effectively shortening Taiwan's reaction time. Stockpiling of China's rocket force , too, suggests it would have more than enough missiles and rockets to target Taiwan.

Earlier this month, Mike Studeman, former commander of the Office of Naval Intelligence and director for intelligence for US Indo-Pacific Command, wrote in War on the Rocks: "There is no apparent countdown to D-day for initiating a blockade or invasion, but major strategic indicators clearly show that General Secretary Xi Jinping is still preparing his country for a showdown. Developments under way suggest Taiwan will face an existential crisis in single-digit years, most likely in the back half of the 2020s or front half of the 2030s."

Some experts assess China would lean into the element of surprise, a core facet in their military doctrine. One common concern is that as China's military exercises around Taiwan have grown in frequency and size, the line between exercise and potential attack is becoming blurred. "The bad news" with such a scenario, Dean Cheng, a senior advisor to the China program at the US Institute of Peace, said, "is they go to war with what they have on hand, because they probably haven't had a chance to deploy more forces forward, stock up munitions, get everything loaded and ready to go. How important is surprise versus how important is being able to sustain the operation?"

Related stories

That ploy resembles the massive Russian build-up on Ukraine's borders prior to the 2022 invasion that officials had claimed was for field exercises.

Goldstein's estimate is that while it's still risky, "they have what they need, and they're ready to undertake" an attack. "I don't think we'll have a lot of warning," he added, noting a sudden set of actions that only unfolds over a period of hours would be more likely than many other clearer, long-term signs.

US involvement also factors in. "There is a possibility of American intervention which then goes to the question of how well can China conceal its preparations for an invasion?" Cheng said.

A Chinese ring of steel

Experts, as well as US and Taiwan lawmakers and military officials, have long debated about the readiness of the People's Liberation Army as China's military is known.

"The PLA's modernization plan, we think, is still on track, and is aimed at a 2027 period," Cheng explained, with goals of being a fully modernized fighting force by then.

Before then, there's a higher risk that an assault attempt would fail or shatter Beijing's forces. "The PLA isn't going to make the call, however, about whether to invade Taiwan, that's going to be up to Chinese leadership, Xi in particular, and the rest of the Politburo Standing Committee," top leadership in the CCP, Cheng said.

China has indicated it will use force if necessary, but a full-scale invasion likely has dire consequences for China. Other actions — such as an air and maritime blockade, as noted in DoD's China report , limited force campaigns, air and missile campaigns, and seizure of Taiwan's smaller occupied islands — could be preferable, and China boats much of those capabilities already.

A blockade, for example, would give the US and its allies more time to respond than a sudden, bolt-from-the-blue surprise attack. "It's less risky in the sense that you're not going to have necessarily thousands killed, but you're giving Taiwan and the Americans time to organize a response," Cheng said.

There's also precedent at play: The US blockaded Cuba after it detected a deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles to the island in 1962 in what would become the Cold War's most dangerous crisis.

US involvement in defending Taiwan from China is a major unknown. A war game analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies from January 2023 reported that in most of the 24 runs, the US, Taiwan, and Japan defeated a conventional amphibious invasion by China, but suffered heavy and severe losses.

But with all of this comes the consideration that Xi's biggest priority is to reunify with Taiwan. As US Army Maj. Kyle Amonson and retired US Coast Guard Capt. Dane Egli wrote in 2023, much of when Xi decides to invade Taiwan comes down to how he wants to maintain his legacy in the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese society, as well as what accomplishing such a feat would do for him.

Scene for a showdown

Cross-Strait relations have soured in recent years, especially with the Democratic Progressive Party in power since 2016, raising worries that military action for reunification is more likely and other options, such as diplomacy, aren't. The worst case scenario is a full-scale invasion , which would unleash all-out war and potentially trigger responses from the US, Japan, the Philippines, and others.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Beijing's economy was booming, Taiwanese students were traveling to the mainland for school work, and Chinese leadership likely believed Taiwan would eventually accept reunification.

"But the state of the economy and society, and the Chinese crackdown on Hong Kong, as well as other elements such as American actions, led Beijing to think time is no longer on their side," Cheng said. "Tensions are definitely higher now, but where I would draw the line is that it doesn't necessarily mean Beijing is about to launch an invasion."

Goldstein said that in tracking Chinese media closely, calls for reunification are more frequent and heated. "I am concerned that China may see some reason to go earlier rather than later," he explained.

Xi himself told US President Joe Biden in late 2023, "Look, peace is… all well and good, but at some point we need to move towards resolution."

Watch: China shows how it would attack Taiwan as tensions rise

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Taiwan’s president-elect appoints new foreign, defense ministers as island faces continued threats

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, U.S. Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee, left, meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Kildee and Lisa McClain, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, Lisa McClain, left, secretary-general of the Republican Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives meets with Taiwan President-elect and Vice President Lai Ching-te in Taipei, Taiwan on Tuesday, April 23, 2024. McClain and Democratic Congressman Dan Kildee jointly led a cross-party group of lawmakers to visit Taiwan from April 23 to 25 . Members also include Mark Alford, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s president-elect has appointed new foreign and defense ministers to join his incoming administration as the island faces continuing military threats and diplomatic isolation from China.

Lai Ching-te, who assumes the presidency on May 20, announced Thursday that current Presidential Secretary General Lin Chia-lung will take over as foreign minister.

He said Wellington Koo will head the Defense Ministry at a time when Taiwan is upgrading its defenses against China with new ships, submarines, warplanes, missile systems and other land-based defenses.

Along with stepping up its threat to annex Taiwan by force, China has whittled down the number of Taiwan’s formal diplomatic allies to just 12, while excluding it from the United Nations and most other international organizations.

Koo, a lawyer, has headed the National Security Council under current President Tsai Ing-wen, who is leaving office as mandated after two four-year terms. He will be replaced in the high-profile role by current Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

Taiwan has a long-embedded tradition of civilians serving as defense minister, in contrast to China’s practice of appointing top generals who have taken an increasingly bellicose attitude toward Taiwan, the U.S. and in asserting China’s territorial claims in the South China and East China seas.

Lin previously served as mayor of Taiwan’s largest city, Taichung, and was put in charge of Taiwan’s economic outreach to Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Both Lin and Koo are members of the Democratic Progressive Party, with which China has cut contacts over its refusal to acknowledge Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the island.

Lai handily won the presidential election in January, although the main opposition Nationalist Party that backs eventual unification with China took a one-vote majority in the legislature.

Taiwan has a mixture of presidential and parliamentary systems with much power also invested in local city and county governments. The formula emerged after Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists relocated their government to the former Japanese colony of Taiwan in 1949 as Mao Zedong’s Communists seized power on the mainland after a decades-long civil war.

China Should Have Confidence to Talk to Us, Taiwan's President-Elect Says

China Should Have Confidence to Talk to Us, Taiwan's President-Elect Says

Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te speaks waves during a press conference where incoming cabinet members are announced, in Taipei, Taiwan April 25, 2024. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) -China should have the confidence to talk to Taiwan's legally elected government, President-elect Lai Ching-te said on Thursday as he appointed his new national security and diplomacy team amid what he called unprecedented challenges.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, over the island's strong objections, has ramped up military and political pressure against Taipei during the past four years as it seeks to press sovereignty claims.

Lai, who takes office on May 20, is particularly disliked by Beijing, which views him as a dangerous separatist. Lai has repeatedly offered to talk with China has but been rebuffed.

The challenge the new national security team is facing is unprecedented, given the rise of authoritarianism, and China pressing closer all the time, Lai told reporters as he announced the teams, staffed by people in the current administration.

He also again offered to talk to Beijing.

Photos You Should See - April 2024

"I am very much looking forward to China having the confidence to engage with the elected and legitimate government that the Taiwan people have entrusted. That is the right way for cross-strait exchange," he said.

Lai said Beijing would not get support from the Taiwanese public if they are only willing to engage Taiwan's opposition with "political preconditions", in a veiled reference to the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, whose senior leaders have made frequent visits to China in recent months.

China's Taiwan Affairs Office referred Reuters to comments it made on Jan. 17 after Lai won the election in which it said Lai did not represent mainstream public opinion, given he did not win a majority of all the votes cast, and that the result did not change the fact Taiwan is part of China.

Beijing has repeatedly said any talks can only take place if Taiwan's government accepts that both sides of the Taiwan Strait are part of "one China", which is supported by the KMT but rejected by Lai and President Tsai Ing-wen.

National Security Council Secretary-General Wellington Koo, a lawyer by training, will take over as defence minister from Chiu Kuo-cheng, a former army commander, Lai said.

Koo said he was determined to discourage any Chinese adventurism over Taiwan with "coordinated actions" with allies in the region and show the world Taiwan's determination to defend itself by strengthening its combat capabilities.

"Our top aim is to complicate the other side of the strait's calculations to make a timetable for possible rash actions," he said, standing on stage with Lai and other incoming ministers.

Koo is being succeeded as head of the National Security Council by current Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, while Lin Chia-lung, the serving secretary-general at the Presidential Office, will become the new foreign minister, Lai said.

The post of the head of the top China policy maker, the Mainland Affairs Council has gone to Chiu Chui-cheng, a former deputy on the council with years of China policy experience.

Intelligence chief Tsai Ming-yen stays on as head of the National Security Bureau.

(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Miral Fahmy and Ros Russell)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Situation Report: Congress Helps Steer Taiwan Toward the ‘Porcupine Strategy’

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Congress Helps Steer Taiwan Toward the ‘Porcupine Strategy’

The national security bill gives biden more leverage to tell taiwan what weapons to buy..

• Jack Detsch
• Robbie Gramer

Welcome back to Foreign Policy ’s SitRep.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: Washington is set to put Taiwan’s military on the porcupine diet, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes a high-stakes visit to China , and Congress (finally) passes more military aid for Ukraine .

The Porcupine Gets Its Quills

For years, the United States has tried everything to get Taiwan onto a “porcupine strategy,” making the island a pricklier target that might make China think twice about attacking it.

U.S. officials have urged Taiwan to buy an asymmetric toolkit of coastal defense cruise missiles, loitering munitions, and shoulder-fired weapons that could sink Chinese boats before they land and bog down the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in a block-by-block fight if it gets ashore. Taiwan has instead mostly opted for a more conventional diet of submarines, fighter jets, and tanks.

On Tuesday, Congress passed a massive foreign aid bill after a grueling six-month political battle that allocates $8 billion for the Indo-Pacific, including a sizable chunk of change—to the tune of $2 billion —for Taiwan and other allies to purchase weapons. While the package doesn’t legislate what will be heading over, the Biden administration might manage to finally get Taipei to go along with the porcupine strategy for good.

Defense diet. “The U.S. has more say—a lot more say—in how the money will be spent because it’s U.S. taxpayer money,” said Ivan Kanapathy, a nonresident senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former National Security Council official during the Trump and Biden administrations.

A congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about ongoing military sales told Foreign Policy that the United States has managed to speed up some of the $19 billion in military sales to Taiwan that have been backlogged for years—a list that includes 66 F-16 fighter jets, Patriot air defense batteries, and other big-ticket items, some of which have caused concern in Washington for being decidedly un-porcupine.

New pot of money. But now, Taiwan will be getting more military aid through presidential drawdown authority—the same mechanism that the Biden administration has used to give Ukraine weapons right off of the Pentagon’s shelves—as well as through Foreign Military Financing, a program run by the State and Defense departments that provides grant money to fund foreign militaries.

Shifting Taiwan onto the U.S. military’s dole will give the Pentagon more leverage to focus on providing Taipei weapons from Washington’s priority list. The U.S. government is also looking into building more weapons on the island, as Taiwan has done with its attempts to build itself a fleet of submarines.

“The challenge that Taiwan has is, in essence, they need two types of militaries,” said Heino Klinck, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia. “One to deal with steady-state operations such as contending with PLA incursions into the [air defense identification zone]. And then they need a different type of military to deal with the worst-case scenario—an invasion.”

Growing pains. Building up both of those capabilities is difficult to do for all the obvious reasons, not least being the cost. U.S. officials have long urged Taiwan to spend more on its military. It has boosted spending by more than one-fifth, to about 2.6 percent of GDP, the highest figure in its history. Taiwan has also acquired U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers and SeaGuardian drones.

But there is pressure for Taiwan to do even more as Chinese military exercises in the region have intensified—dating all the way back to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island in August 2022. According to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, the number of Chinese aircraft crossing the median line in the Taiwan Strait or entering the island’s air defense identification zone surged by 50 percent in the first six months of 2023.

“The Chinese have been establishing this new normal,” Klinck said. “There’s no warning time anymore in case the Chinese were to do something.”

Let’s Get Personnel

U.S. President Joe Biden has tapped Lise Grande as the new special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues. Grande had been running the U.S. Institute of Peace and was previously the United Nations head of humanitarian and development operations in Yemen.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has named Gen. Gwyn Jenkins , currently vice chief of the defense staff, to be national security advisor. He will take over from Tim Barrow , who is set to be the next British ambassador to the United States, replacing Dame Karen Pierce .

On the Button

What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.

Cover story. Iran tried to keep up the story that Israel’s retaliatory strikes last week failed to hit their targets—military assets near the city of Isfahan—with a bit of a switcheroo: replacing the air-defense radar that Israeli missiles destroyed with a different, undamaged one to make it look like the Russian-made S-300 air defense battery at Natanz was still in operation.

The Economist , which nabbed the scoop , suggested that the deception likely wasn’t enough to fool U.S. and Israeli spies who have high-end satellites that would be able to see that the defensive weapon was missing a key component, but it seemed to be convincing enough to enable the Iranian regime to maintain the fiction to its own constituents that the Israeli attack didn’t cause any major damage and thus didn’t warrant a reprisal.

Let’s just talk. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week touched down in China for high-stakes diplomatic meetings with top Chinese officials as part of the Biden administration’s ongoing campaign to ease relations with its top geopolitical rival. Among the many items on the agenda is China’s economic support for Russia as it carries out its war in Ukraine.

“The basic view here of how China is supporting Russia is changing, from primarily civilian assistance to actually this is, in effect, military support,” said Jacob Stokes, an expert on the Indo-Pacific with the Washington-based Center for a New American Security think tank.

Another big question on everyone’s minds in Washington is whether Blinken will be able to secure a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping or whether Xi will give him the diplomatic cold shoulder. “If he doesn’t meet with Xi, that’s a clear barometer of where the relationship is,” Stokes said.

Better late than never? U.S. allies in Europe and Ukraine are breathing a huge sigh of relief after Congress passed the military aid bill, which allots some $60 billion to Ukraine. But Western defense officials widely agree this won’t be the last tranche of aid that Ukraine needs, and U.S. allies are unnerved about whether such support for Ukraine will continue, as Robbie and our colleague Rishi Iyengar report .

It’s noteworthy that most Republicans who backed the effort came from the old guard—party elders who currently hold powerful committee chairmanships but won’t do so forever. Of the 112 Republican House members who opposed the aid package, 71 have been elected since 2018, as Politico notes, representing a new generational shift that has U.S. allies worried.

In addition to the aid package, it was revealed yesterday that the Biden administration secretly sent the long-range variant of the U.S. Army Tactical Missile System to Ukraine last week, which the Ukrainian military immediately put to use by hitting a Russian airfield in Crimea.

Maximilian Krah, member of the European Parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party, speaks to journalists outside the Reichstag following a meeting between Krah and leading AfD members in Berlin on April 24. Krah affirmed that he will remain a lead candidate of the AfD in upcoming European parliamentary elections despite the recent arrest of one of his employees on charges of spying for China. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Put on Your Radar

Thursday, April 25: Blinken is on day two of a three-day trip to China.

Monday, April 29: European Commission presidential candidates debate.

Embattled Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez—who is considering resigning as his wife faces a corruption investigation—is set to announce his future plans.

Togo holds parliamentary elections.

Tuesday, April 30: Daniel Kritenbrink, the State Department’s top official for East Asia and the Pacific, is set to testify on U.S. policy toward Taiwan before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Quote of the Week

“It’s pure bullshit. Pillar 2 is fragrant, methane-wrapped bullshit. … Why do I call it bullshit? Because it’s been cobbled together to make it look like there’s more to AUKUS than subs—there isn’t.”

—Former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr taking a dim view of the AUKUS alliance’s efforts to focus on cutting-edge technologies.

This Week’s Most Read

• Arab Countries Have Israel’s Back—for Their Own Sake by Steven A. Cook
• A Tale of Two Megalopolises by Jan-Werner Müller
• Why Arab States Haven’t Broken With Israel by David E. Rosenberg

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Mr. Speaker, God’s on line 2. Elaina Plott Calabro’s profile of U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in the Atlantic is full of gems, but here is our favorite : “Friends still get a kick out of a story about how Johnson once told Trump that he was praying for him, to which the then-president responded: ‘Thank you, Mike. Tell God I said hi.’”

Out of credit. Former U.S. Rep. George Santos is dropping his comeback bid for Congress after raising no money, as The Associated Press reports . Santos was expelled from Congress in December and still confronts a raft of federal fraud charges.

Speaking of failed bids, in the midst of the congressional battle over the foreign aid bill, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene pushed an amendment to use “space lasers” to combat migrants at the U.S. southern border. She did not elaborate on what that meant. The amendment did not pass.

Jack Detsch is a Pentagon and national security reporter at Foreign Policy . Twitter:  @JackDetsch

Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy . Twitter:  @RobbieGramer

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Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Yimou Lee in Taipei; Graphic by Jackie Gu; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Jamie Freed and Angus MacSwan

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