OPINION: New Zealand and the Republic of China (Taiwan) were wartime allies, who stood together for decades. Should they now turn to each other during the Covid-19 crisis? Doing so could help New Zealand maintain our independence and resilience in this time of global upheaval.

The island nation of Taiwan, population 23.5 million, is close to eradicating Covid-19. Taiwan has less than 400 confirmed cases, and 6 deaths. Taiwan reacted earlier than any other government to news of the novel coronavirus. They began tracking incoming passengers from Wuhan from December 2019. When the first infected person was identified in Taiwan on January 21, the government introduced rigorous contact tracing, controlled immigration, and rationed access to PPE to prevent stockpiling and black marketeers. Private businesses joined with the Taiwan government to conduct body-temperature monitoring and disinfection. Taiwan increased local production of PPE and is now offering advice and aid to other states on controlling Covid-19.

Taiwan is not well known or understood in New Zealand, even though 10,000 of our 230,000-strong ethnic-Chinese community come from Taiwan and New Zealand Chinese who migrated to New Zealand between 1912 and 1949 were all citizens of the ROC. In 2012, New Zealand and Taiwan signed a Joint Venture Capital Investment Agreement, then in 2013, New Zealand and Taiwan signed an Economic Cooperation Agreement, Taiwan's first with a developed nation.

Adam Dudding/Fairfax Nz Taiwan has fewer than 400 confirmed cases, and 6 deaths.

Taiwan is currently our eighth largest export market. We are Taiwan's largest supplier of dairy products. New Zealand and Taiwan youth participate in a working holiday scheme. New Zealand's Māori and Pacifica peoples are genetic "cousins" of the present-day indigenous people of Taiwan, whose Austronesian ancestors settled throughout the Pacific. In 2004, New Zealand and Taiwan signed an agreement to cooperate on indigenous issues and many Māori-Taiwan links have developed as a result of this.

Taiwan is an independent society and has been since 1945, but "Taiwan" is not the actual name of the government. The Republic of China was founded in 1912, after the Qing dynasty was overthrown. Yet the ROC never succeeded in controlling the whole territory of China. From the 1920s to the 1940s, China was as divided and riven by war as Syria and Iraq are today. At least a third of Chinese territory, including the island of Taiwan, was occupied by Japan. The ROC government took over the island of Taiwan after the surrender of Japan in 1945. In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won the Chinese Civil War, founding the People's Republic of China (PRC), and soon the island of Taiwan and a few offshore islands were all the territory that remained of the ROC.

The ROC on Taiwan has withstood the threat of invasion and subversion from the CCP for seventy years. Taiwan is now a beacon of democracy in the Asia-Pacific region and has a strong economy and thriving civil society

DAVID RAMOS/GETTY IMAGES Brady says the Chinese government, and Huawei, have sent bulk supplies of PPE to countries who have not yet made a final decision on Huawei in their 5G system.

New Zealand and the ROC were close diplomatic allies from 1938-1972. New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk had to be persuaded by his foreign policy adviser Gerald Hensley to recognise the PRC government soon after his government was formed. Kirk was wary of communism and wanted to hold back on recognising Red China. The ROC ambassador was the well-liked dean of the New Zealand diplomatic community, and the justification for switching recognition were political, not economic. In 1970, New Zealand had led an initiative at the United Nations, to establish two China seats, one for the PRC and one for the ROC. But the ROC refused to cooperate, and when the PRC won the General Assembly vote to take up the China seat in 1971, the ROC made the fatal error of immediately vacating their offices in protest. For nearly fifty years, the ROC has been excluded from the UN and all its organisations, under the One China principle insisted on by the PRC.

Taiwan learned the hard way not to trust the CCP, especially when it comes to epidemics. Taiwan is shut out of the WHO due to pressure from the CCP government, yet in some ways, this advantaged them facing Covid-19. The states who are dealing with Covid-19 best are those who understand the strategic risk China poses, and responded faster than states who relied on what the WHO was telling them.

New Zealand is beginning to bring Covid-19 under control, after a late start, which necessitated the current drastic state of emergency and national lockdown. Taiwan never needed a lockdown, as their early control methods proved effective.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has criticised the WHO, saying that "when this matter was a pandemic the WHO should have been saying so...We were not getting the facts out of China, internationally we were not getting enough warning."

When the New Zealand government implemented travel restrictions on Chinese travellers in February 2020, the New Zealand PRC ambassador Wu Xi pressured New Zealand to lift the ban, saying that the Chinese government had the virus "under control". Now that New Zealand is into the fourth week of lockdown, China is restricting access to purchases of PPE. Health Minister Dr David Clarke says New Zealand has "several weeks' worth" of PPE. New Zealand companies have started making PPE, but it is not enough. As occurred in many other countries, New Zealand's supplies of PPE were exported in bulk to China in January and February by CCP proxy groups.

It has become clear that China will extract a high political cost for any Covid-19 assistance they provide to New Zealand. China is now denying New Zealand's new Hong Kong Head of Mission's right of accreditation, apparently as punishment for restricting travel to New Zealand from China. The Chinese government, and Huawei, have pointedly sent bulk supplies of PPE to countries who have not yet made a final decision on Huawei in their 5G system.

Now is the time for New Zealand to seek help from old friends. New Zealand is already looking to Taiwan as a model for controlling the Covid-19 epidemic. The New Zealand government must now reach out to Taiwan and ask for practical assistance, as many other like-minded states have done. We need to purchase high-quality PPE that does not come with political strings attached, and we need to expand our trade and other economic links, to avoid dependence on the China market. For five decades after New Zealand recognised the PRC, our trade was actually higher with Taiwan. Once New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia and Pacific Island Forum states have eliminated Covid-19, the idea of forming an education, tourism and trade Covid-19 free bubble of 60 million consumers should be seriously considered.

China is politically weak right now, so New Zealand could not pick a better time to restore equilibrium in our relations. New Zealand has a solid foundation of positive relations with Beijing. When National leader Simon Bridges visited China in September 2019, he was told by the head of China's secret police, Guo Shengkun, that New Zealand-China relations were at a "historic best"—under the Coalition government.

Beginning in 1987, New Zealand adopted a strategy of balancing against the United States, by leaning into the China relationship. In 2020, China is trying to dominate New Zealand and our Pacific partners. Meanwhile the US is weakening, struggling to cope with Covid-19, and it appears it cannot help us either economically or politically.

The global environment has not been so challenging for New Zealand since 1942 when British forces in Singapore, who were New Zealand's shield, fell to the advance of the Japanese. New Zealand must pull close to like-minded states like Taiwan and form new allegiances, so we can maintain our independence and security and survive the cataclysmic Covid-19 era.

Professor Anne-Marie Brady is a specialist in Chinese politics at Canterbury University's Department of Political Science and International Relations. @Anne_MarieBrady