Outbreak Morphs Into a Political Minefield

(Bloomberg) --

The coronavirus spread is throwing up all sorts of challenges for governments.

To keep their people safe, many are instituting travel bans, either on their citizens going to certain virus hotspots, or requiring travelers from those hotspots to go into quarantine upon arrival. Or not come at all.

Those bans are not just a logistical and economic headache. In some places, they’re proving to be a geopolitical minefield.

Take Taiwan. Some countries put in place early travel curbs on people from China, and then lumped in Hong Kong, Macau and — Taiwan, to the democratically run island's consternation. The subext was whether these countries were somehow endorsing China’s view of Taiwan by including it.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. is considering further controls at its southern border, adding to tensions over migration into the U.S. from Mexico.

And now a historical rift between South Korea and Japan is coming into play. Seoul is irked by what it calls Japan’s “irrational and excessive” request for its citizens to voluntarily quarantine.

Japan and South Korea have some of the largest clusters of virus patients outside China. But the countries have also only recently parked a trade spat that flared from a longstanding dispute over whether Japan has been contrite enough for its 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula.

As the spread beyond China widens and global cases approach 100,000, containment remains the priority. But keeping old political wounds out of it may not be easy.

Global Headlines

Turnout wars | The extraordinary number of Democrats who cast ballots in presidential primaries on Super Tuesday should, at first glance, be worrisome for Trump. Democratic turnout rose an average of 33% compared to 2016. But, as Emma Kinery and Mario Parker report, Republicans may be just as excited to keep him in the White House.

• Click here for more on the impact of Elizabeth Warren’s exit from the race.
• Bernie Sanders has canceled a campaign trip to Mississippi today, meaning he’s effectively ceding votes in the South to Joe Biden.

Biden probe | Biden’s political resurrection is reviving attention on Republican efforts in the U.S. Senate to investigate the former vice president’s son and his work with a Ukrainian energy company. As Trump vows to turn Hunter Biden’s time on the board of Burisma Holdings into a campaign issue, two committee chairmen are pressing ahead with investigations of the Bidens, prompting Democrats to cry foul.

Green power | French President Emmanuel Macron’s chances of securing a second term in 2022 could depend on winning environmental voters. As Ania Nussbaum explains, two rounds of mayoral elections starting March 15 will show how successfully Macron’s defenses are holding up against the Greens, who are laying claim to the center ground he had carved out for himself.

Broken dream | Under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has tried to re-establish sway in nations of the former Ottoman Empire amid a growing power vacuum as the U.S. disengages, Marc Champion reports. Facing Russia-backed forces in Syria’s Idlib, however, Erdogan may have pushed to the limit the ability of a country with no nuclear arsenal and an economy roughly the size of Spain’s to carve a sphere of influence.

Deadly bridges | Italy’s crumbling infrastructure is putting lives are at risk, and no one knows what to do about it. Marco Bertacche and Alberto Brambilla spoke to Placido Migliorino, a 60-year-old engineer whose year-long investigation into the state of the nation’s highway bridges took him on a Kafkaesque journey exposing bureaucracy, self-interest and political paralysis.

What to Watch

• Trump has tentative plans to meet tomorrow night with his Brazilian counterpart, Jair Bolsonaro, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

• Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara ended months of speculation over whether he’ll extend his rule by announcing yesterday he won’t seek re-election when his second five-year term ends later this year.

• Canada’s industry minister said yesterday his government won’t be bullied into restricting Huawei’s access to next-generation wireless networks amid U.S. pressure to ban the Chinese technology giant.

Pop quiz, readers (no cheating!). Which African country has formed a commission that’s exhuming mass graves from waves of turmoil since its independence from Belgium in 1962? Send us your answers and tell us how we’re doing or what we’re missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally ... At the Trump Doonbeg golf course on Ireland’s west coast, the ocean has been inching closer to a private bar overlooking the 18th hole. In Denmark, a century-old lighthouse was moved inland from a retreating shoreline, while in Portugal, authorities may tear down buildings along 122 kilometers (75 miles) of an eroding coast. Across Europe, the sea is encroaching on nearly a fifth of the coastline. Climate change will only accelerate the losses, Rudy Ruitenberg reports.

--With assistance from Kathleen Hunter and Anthony Halpin.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Ruth Pollard

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