Beyond 2018

Taiwan

On Nov 24, Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party, suffered a big defeat in the local elections, winning only six of the 22 cities and counties. This prompted Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen to resign as leader of the DPP.

? Expert: Liu Xiangping, a senior professor of Taiwan studies, Nanjing University

The failure of the DPP has once again proved right that anyone that dares to seek "Taiwan independence" will fail. For Taiwan compatriots, their biggest interest is healthy economic growth and the prosperity of their businesses, instead of any slogan that forces them into political confrontation.

The DPP has ignored Taiwan residents' interests in the two years it has been in power. Since Tsai refuses to uphold the 1992 Consensus that there is only one China, cross-Straits relations have frozen, preventing Taiwan from benefiting from the peaceful development of cross-Straits ties.

The number of Chinese mainland tourists to Taiwan has dropped by 40 percent since Tsai took office, dealing a big blow to the island's tourism industry.
Agricultural products, which previously accounted for a high percentage of the island's supplies to the mainland, are now overstocked.

But instead of correcting their wrongs, Tsai and her fellow DPP leaders have continually hyped up the cross-Straits issue and accused the mainland of "intervening" in the local elections.

However, they can no longer fool Taiwan residents. And if they continue to move ahead on the wrong path next year, they will only lose further support.

Scandal

On July 15, Changchun Changsheng Biotech Co was reported to have falsified the production records for its rabies vaccine for human use. Later, it also came to light that it had produced substandard DPT vaccines for children's use in the past.

? Expert: Tao Lina, a doctor with 15 years' experience of vaccines

Some said the incident had little effect on actual public health, which in a sense is not totally baseless, as false production records do not necessarily mean fake vaccines.

Besides, as the government has taken measures to recall the substandard vaccines, the possibility of them damaging public health is quite low.

But the fact that some vaccine producers have lax production quality control has undermined people's confidence in the domestic vaccination system. And although the company was fined 9.1 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) and its top executives were banned for life from the vaccine profession, many people used micro blogs and other social media platforms to express their distrust in the domestic vaccination system.

But such distrust is unfair because China's vaccination system is strictly supervised. That central supervisors unearthed the Changchun company's scandal is the best proof of how sincerely they are working.

On Dec 23, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, reviewed the draft of a new, separate vaccination law, which would strengthen supervision, and risk and quality control. There is room for improvement in the law. Still, we hope the authorities' efforts will increase people's trust in the vaccination system in the future.