Minister for Covid Response Chris Hipkins is being asked to apologise for claiming Taiwan took an authoritarian Covid-19 approach.

This morning, Hipkins spoke on RNZ about the health order making it mandatory for face masks to be worn on public transport in Auckland and on planes nationally.

Hipkins was asked about why it took New Zealand longer to make this mandatory. 

“Some of the countries that we get compared with have much more authoritarian regimes than New Zealand. So if you look at Taiwan, they have a much greater degree of compliance, but they [have] a much more authoritarian approach to the way they’re doing their Covid-19 than New Zealand.”

He has later clarified his statement saying he was referring to the nation requiring widespread mask use earlier than New Zealand.

But Director General of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Auckland Jeff Liu told Heather Du Plessis-Allan that claim is incorrect.

"People in Taiwan are putting on masks in a life or death issue. People would like to put on face masks as a protection. No one has forced them to put on masks." 

LISTEN ABOVE