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Facemasks have been proven an effective non-pharmaceutical measure against coronavirus disease-19. Against the backdrop of global mask shortages, Taiwan distinguished herself from other countries in that Taiwan took a whole-of-nation approach to masks and mobilized the society quickly to become self-sufficient in masks. This paper argues that successful virus securitization as a threat to national security was what enabled Taiwan to effectively mobilize the private sector to carry out the state's will in ensuring adequate mask supply. Moreover, Taiwan securitized the virus more successfully than many other countries because the virus was connected to China, the nation's existing security threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report collects all the keywords that have appeared in the International Journal of Taiwan Studies since its first issue in February 2018. The authors use these keywords and resulting word clouds to reflect on the current state of Taiwan-related research. We find that publications are still heavily dominated by cross-Strait-related topics and that, despite the aspiration of putting Taiwan in a comparative perspective, the results have so far been relatively limited. We suggest including more topical sections in future issues as one way to diversify the interdisciplinary and comparative scope of the journal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One year after the World Health Organization declared COVID‐19 a global pandemic, governments around the world adopt similar practices in containing the COVID‐19 spread. Nevertheless, variation exists in the level of policy compliance, which directly contribute to policy success/failure across countries. As the pandemic continues, pandemic fatigue also decreases the public's willingness to comply. Increasing policy compliance during the remainder of pandemic has become a transnational concern. Using Taiwan's quarantine policy as an example, this article illustrates three aspects to craft an effective compliance regime to fight public health crises like COVID‐19: (1) a comprehensive policy mix to reduce heterogeneous compliance barriers that impact different social groups; (2) constant and various policy communication with heterogeneous target audiences; and (3) leveraging and integrating street‐level bureaucrats in the policy implementation stages. Taiwan's case provides several policy lessons for other countries: compliance regime is not driven by top‐down enforcement but through the integration of policy design and implementation that remove all barriers for compliance. Taiwan's street level bureaucrats are the glue of the compliance regime. This article bears policy implications for policy makers around the world when aiming for increasing policy compliance. Taiwan's compliance regime on quarantine policy provides several lessons for countries that are utilizing social behavior measures to contain the spread of COVID‐19. A successful quarantine policy consists of multiple layers of protection steps and involves collaborations among bureaucratic organizations of all levels and private businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the reasons behind Taiwan's effective COVID‐19 response. While some have argued that Taiwan's success with COVID‐19 is based on its experience with SARS, I argue that we should not attribute Taiwan's effective response solely to its SARS experience. The country's success mainly lies in three factors: (1) reliance on the mask policy as the main disease prevention measure and the ability to quickly expand mask production capacity; (2) use of big data and technology to enhance effective implementation of disease prevention and detection measures; and (3) strong state‐society relations favoring transparency, communication, and collaboration. The first two factors can trace their roots to the country's developmental state model. Democracy provides the institutional underpinning for a vibrant civil society and the synergy between state and civil society, strengthening Taiwan's crisis governance legitimacy and increasing citizens' voluntary compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]