China has displayed its true vicious character again when it threatens to halt medical supplies to Netherlands after the latter changing its official representative’s name of Trade office in Taiwan. On Tuesday April 28, The Netherlands Trade and Investment Office changed its name to “Netherlands Office Taipei” from its earlier name. The inclusion of the name Taipei seems to have angered China.
In a video clip that was released on Monday evening but later taken down, Dutch representative in Taipei, Guy Wittich elaborated that the name had been changed and simplified because of an expansion of activities in many new areas between the two countries. Wittich said that the terms “trade and investment” had been taken out, as the scope of cooperation between the two countries had increased. Over the past eight years, the Australian, British, Japanese, and Polish representative offices have similarly simplified the names of their de facto embassies in Taiwan.
In response, the Chinese embassy in Netherlands has claimed that the name change “concerns China’s core interests” and reminded the Netherlands to dutifully adhere to its “one China principle.” China has threatened that it could halt the shipment of medical supplies to Netherlands over what it called a provocative name change.
China’s state-run mouthpiece, the Global Times report on the same day cited “analysts” as saying that the “provocative move” is “destructive to regional stability” and would “likely face a backlash.” It then claimed that Chinese netizens on China’s tightly censored and carefully orchestrated social media platforms had allegedly called on “Chinese companies to immediately stop exporting medical supplies to the country.”
China’s threat of halting the shipment of medical supplies comes at a time when the Netherlands is suffering from 38,802 confirmed cases and 4,711 deaths from the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), a higher death toll than the official numbers in China, the origin of the catastrophic global pandemic. However, the Chinese threat seem to be hollow as Netherlands had recently recalled 600,000 substandard medical masks that it had imported from China, and numerous other countries have reported similar issues with Chinese-made medical gear.
