Taiwan and the WHO: negotiating the deconstruction of racialized discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic

Racialized and politicized discourses on individuals and countries have accompanied the emergence and spread of COVID-19. Adopting critical discourse analysis (CDA) and investigating the WHO's news releases, press conferences and the Taiwanese government's formal responses, this article examines three discursive events involving the deconstruction of racialized discourses during the pandemic by the WHO, the WHO's Director-General and Taiwan. Specifically, I focus on the following: the WHO's calls on the international community to cease using the term 'China virus';Dr Ghebreyesus' calls on Taiwan to cease leveling racist insults against the Black community;and the Taiwanese government's refutation of racist allegations by deconstructing racialized meanings and highlighting its marginal status in the global health system due to international politics. The findings demonstrate the different ways each subject framed moral and immoral practice, highlighted or downplayed racialized discourse, and applied moral vs immoral distinction to manipulate and reinforce the audience's thoughts. This article contributes to the field of international relations and its connection with racism by showing how racial injustices 'travel' between places and are negotiated and re-politicized in the global health sphere. [ FROM AUTHOR]

Selective border permeability: Governing complex environmental issues through and beyond COVID-19.

COVID-19 has changed the permeability of borders in transboundary environmental governance regimes. While borders have always been selectively permeable, the pandemic has reconfigured the nature of cross-border flows of people, natural resources, finances and technologies. This has altered the availability of spaces for enacting sustainability initiatives within and between countries. In Southeast Asia, national governments and businesses seeking to expedite economic recovery from the pandemic-induced recession have selectively re-opened borders by accelerating production and revitalizing agro-export growth. Widening regional inequities have also contributed to increased cross-border flows of illicit commodities, such as trafficked wildlife. At the same time, border restrictions under the exigencies of controlling the pandemic have led to a rolling back and scaling down of transboundary environmental agreements, regulations and programs, with important implications for environmental democracy, socio-ecological justice and sustainability. Drawing on evidence from Southeast Asia, the article assesses the policy challenges and opportunities posed by the shifting permeability of borders for organising and operationalising environmental activities at different scales of transboundary governance.