Bye.

I hope to see you in Tokyo some day.

In English? Please do that. It will be really great.

Just for me for my record and translate.

Thank you so much. It was really interesting. Does this video that you are recording…?

Many French people refuse to wear masks saying, “No, it’s just not proven scientifically that it blocks the virus.” It’s very strange because it’s a debate on the very basic…It’s not even a technology. It’s like a tissue. It’s very weird to have such a debate, even today.

There is not debate about masks preventing the spread? There is not such a debate? Because in France there is a big debate. Or in Singapore they used not to wear masks. Now they do wear masks.

In Taiwan there is no debate about efficiency of masks?

What you mean to say is that it’s not seen as rude. If someone in the drugstore comes to me and say, “You should wear your mask for your own sake,” you mean they say it in a way that is not intrusive and aggressive? Is that what you mean?

When you say you should wear a mask for your own sake is it something you say to each other, or is it just a general principle?

Can you explain to me again what you said about telling people in a crowd to wear a mask? Do you mean the people next to each other?

What is your impression of Japan?

Apparently you are a frequent visitor of Japan. Japan, to me, is a bit sad because it’s going a bit down. Japan used to be the tunnel to Asia of democracy and technology. I feel that, frankly speaking, Taiwan or Korea are, now, more having this role.

Do you think the size is helpful, or do you think it’s not?

There is, for me, a premium now for small countries. It used to be that big is beautiful and you need to be big, but now you have so many small countries in size that are doing much better than big countries. You’re better off in Switzerland than in India…

It’s maybe a naïve question, but do you think the small size of Taiwan helps in having a democracy with such direct relationship between government and its citizens? Because Israel is also a democracy.

Do you agree that there is value in the acquisition of freedom by fight?

I’ve been in Japan 20 years. I have the sense that because democracy was given in Japan – it was imposed, actually. It was a imposed freedom – people don’t cherish it as much as in your country, which is small, and next to China, hence more in constant jeopardy.

You never see such a scene in Japan or wherever. Maybe it comes from the fact that democracy in Taiwan came from a fight. It was not a given, like for Japan.

She spoke good English. She said, “The Chinese will never crush…” I remember her and the way she pronounced them. She was using “crush, crush.” She said, “Will never crush Taiwan’thirst for freedom,” or something.

It’s great because it brings me to the topic of democracy in Taiwan. I remember my first night in Taiwan. I had dinner with a politician. It was a woman. She was 50.

You hired comedians to display that message?

Did you find that your approach can be exportable to other countries? On top of that, when you look at Singapore or Hong Kong, what are the things you did differently from them?

In Taiwan you have this industrial base still. Do you agree that this old economy base was involved?

In France we don’t do mask. The very few manufacturing industries we have are in luxury. Louis Vuitton makes masks, alcohol gel.

What’s very impressive to me, I went to Taiwan a couple of times. I visited in Kaohsiung, the ACER factory, and so forth. What’s impressive to me, I was thinking about that because there is a real collaboration between the old economy and new economy.

Do you think these issues are overblown outside of Taiwan? Do you think they are real issues? How do you cope with them?

You know there’s a big topic in France about privacy in digital world. To me it seems very overblown because I can’t find any real damage to privacy. We had the same debate about camera, about video surveillance in France 20 years ago.

This seems very hard to manage, this coordination, this dance. How do you do that?

What’s really striking to me in your response is the collaboration between entities that don’t talk to each other. In the case of the mask, from what I read, it’s a pharmacist, Google, and the government who work in sync.

Sorry. Why is barricading hospital a problem? Can you tell me about that?

When you heard about the COVID, is there some models or some answers that you had in mind in front of such a crisis?

I tried to organize the interview in several themes. First, maybe I will ask you a bit personal question. Do you remember the SARS outbreak? How did you react to it?

Since then I tried to read about Taiwan’s response, which is very impressive, especially for French people, because, as you know, the COVID has been very harsh on us. There are many issues that are discussed in France now that you, Taiwan, tackled. For example, privacy and digital.

I’m based in Tokyo. I’m the correspondent for “Le Figaro,” and I write sometimes for “Toyo Keizai.” I proposed to the Le Figaro your profile. I was very interested because I’m in Japan and everybody’s talking about you. [laughs] It’s a bit weird.