It was a hot spring evening in Taipei and over a hundred celebrities, founders, venture capitalists and tech executives gathered for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. The headline event, a fireside chat, was an excuse for Taiwan’s best-connected people to socialize, enjoying the freedom the rest of the world lacked amid another wave of Covid shutdowns. Many of that crowd were not residents of Taiwan for long. While many people were born there, or had a family, most spent little time in their ancestral homeland, living life on Silicon Valley’s tech hub, New England Academia, or Wall Street. But as Covid spread globally, they grabbed their Taiwanese passports or scrambled for a special Gold Card visa and headed to a sanctuary where life went back to normal.
A similar scenario was playing out for the privileged and well-connected people across the globe. With money, passports and flexible employment, they managed to pull off the biggest business of all: Covid arbitrage. The choice of where to live, how to work and which schools to attend provides relative comfort for the wealthy, while billions of others scramble for vaccines and struggle to balance the demands of their jobs and homeschooling .
For wealthy Indians, escaping the ravages of the pandemic included renting private jets while their home nation was brought to its knees as waves of Covid-infected patients gasped for oxygen. The Bollywood stars were seen heading to the tropical archipelago of Maldives while the entire family moved to Dubai. The Emirati municipality has become so popular among Indian expatriates that it has been jokingly called “the safest Indian city”.
In other parts of the world, from America to the UK, the rich also found ways to hide. Flying to far-flung New Zealand, exploring Doomsday Bunkers, or moving to a holiday home away from the crowds.
In Taiwan, which closed the border to foreigners until March 2020, passport holders and authorized residents can re-enter after completing the mandatory two-week isolation. After taking initial action to combat a virus that originated in neighboring China, Taiwan’s government managed to drive its people through a mix of restrictions, such as the mask mandate, while maintaining a degree of flexibility. It ensured that most institutions and entertainment venues remain open.
And so parents are trying to make sure their kids don’t miss any class time, and Taipei’s nightclubs and young professionals aspiring to enjoy KTV’s party life began to flood in. Within six months the US experienced the first wave of lockdowns and schools. After closing in early 2020, the city’s elite international schools had reached full capacity.
The flipside of this transaction came to the fore when Taiwan, having managed to keep Covid at bay for more than a year, suffered a spike in numbers last May, with some cases breaking through its quarantine-based defenses. after. Suddenly, more than 2,000 new infections within a week were seen as a national disaster (India reported 311,170 in a single day during the same period), and shops, schools and businesses were ordered to close or close Gone. After enjoying a golden summer in 2020, Taiwan residents are facing a socially distanced summer in 2021, with clubs and bars closed and food severely restricted.
Because of a lack of vaccines, political pressure from China, the same people with the money and means stayed on flights back to the US, where vaccinations were widely available and schools prepared to reopen. With outbound departures doubling inbound in the months of May to July, the data showed that Taiwan had served its purpose.
Now, governments in the region are under pressure to open their borders to returning citizens, business travelers and tourists. Vaccination rates above 90% encouraged Australia’s federal government, and state leaders, who have control over their territories, to allow citizens and eligible visa holders to return. Thailand began experimenting with a “sandbox” strategy that allows tourists to return to the resort island of Phuket. Keeping the rest of the country largely isolated.
Meanwhile, Taiwan remains cautious. Business leaders and its Chamber of Commerce want the Taiwanese government to relax, citing the impact on foreign trade and its strong exhibition and convention industry. With vaccination levels rising and local COVID cases hovering near zero for more than a month, Taipei may well be resting under control. Still, many Taiwanese do not want Taiwan’s borders to reopen. Instead, they want to capture that most precious epistolary pairing: freedom and security.
In the post-COVID world of arbitration, many have realized the value of playing both sides of the business.
Tim Culpan is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering technology
© Bloomberg
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint.
download
Our App Now!!
,