Digital Pandemic Governance in Taiwan

This chapter demonstrates how ideals of digital governance have been incorporated into Taiwan’s pandemic response during COVID-19 and explores what issues have emerged as a result. The analysis focuses on efficiency, real-timeness, transparency and inclusiveness as the four key ideals that are mutually constitutive for establishing digital measures of pandemic response, as well as complicating one another when they are materialised in our everyday life. To analyse how people and public health professionals respond to digital pandemic response measures, the chapter draws on various resources, including, most importantly, a citizen forum we organised in March 2021, as well as an expert panel, an interview with a key public health official, various technical documents and reliable reports, news and commentaries. Its discussion also highlights the importance of grounding digital transition of pandemic response in democratic governance. Taiwan’s experience is in stark contrast with other Asian authoritarian states and attests to the possibility of implementing digital measures without resorting to total control of the virus and society. Reflecting upon these experiences, this chapter provides important insights into the complexity of Taiwan’s transition towards digital pandemic governance and its ramifications more broadly.