Commentary
BEIJING – A recent deal between Taiwan and mainland firms on purchases of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines has given hope to the island’s epidemic control.
However, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority and some Western media portrayed it as a move breaking through the so-called “mainland’s blocking,” completely disregarding the fact that the mainland has expressed willingness to help since the very onset of the island’s serious outbreak in May.
The mainland offered to provide mainland-made vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and promised to support Taiwan people in using BioNTech vaccines, which Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma participated in the development and commercialized in China.
The mainland also showed its sincerity by offering to dispatch epidemic control experts to Taiwan.
Unfortunately, the DPP authority repeatedly rejected the goodwill.
On one hand, the DPP authority claimed that the mainland “blocked Taiwan’s deal” of buying vaccines. On the other hand, it spared no effort in obstructing Taiwan people from obtaining vaccines from the mainland.
Fosun Pharma has been licensed by BioNTech to exclusively develop and commercialize COVID-19 vaccines based on its mRNA technology platform in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macau Special Administrative Region and Taiwan region.
The DPP authority, however, insisted on circumventing Fosun to buy vaccines from the German firm, which violated business rules and served nothing but political interests.
The irony is that Taiwan’s epidemic monitoring agency chief Chen Shih-chung has recently changed his tone. Chen admitted that Taiwan is within the scope of Fosun’s exclusive rights to sell BioNTech vaccines and the deal deserves due respect.
If the DPP authority had stopped political interference last October, Taiwan enterprises would have been authorized through negotiation to distribute 30 million doses of BioNTech vaccines. Vaccination might have begun early this year, saving many lives. It was only the DPP to blame.
There are many other WHO-approved vaccines available on the market, such as the ones developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, but the DPP did not work actively in vaccine procurement until it was too late.
Yet, it decided to shift the blame on the mainland.
Driven by their ideological bias, some Western media have ignored these obvious facts.
However, the failure of epidemic control cannot be covered up by lies and the people cannot be fooled by rumors.
The DPP authority should immediately stop gambling on the lives and health of Taiwan people, and make concrete efforts instead to safeguard the health and wellbeing of Taiwan compatriots. – Xinhua
