Taiwan accuses China of blocking its access to Covid-19 vaccines

Taiwan has blamed “Chinese intervention” for exacerbating its vaccine shortage amid the island’s first major Covid-19 outbreak.

Coronavirus vaccine supply has become the latest flashpoint inflaming tensions between China and Taiwan, with the latter nation battling its worst Covid-19 outbreak since the pandemic began, exacerbated by its mostly unvaccinated population.

For months, the island – regarded by China as its own territory – has been unable to purchase doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, and leaders have declared “Chinese intervention” is at the root of the issue. Only three per cent of its 23 million residents have received at least one dose, and as Taiwan continues to battle hundreds of cases a day, there are concerns it doesn’t have enough to vaccinate the rest.

While it has made successful deals with the UK’s AstraZeneca and America’s Moderna, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, said late last month that this wasn’t the case when it came to German drugmaker BioNTech – which a Chinese company has the exclusive rights to distribute in Taiwan.

“We had almost completed the contract signing with the German manufacturer at one point, but it has been delayed till now because China has interfered,” Ms Tsai said, after months of suggesting that Beijing had been getting in the way of her nation’s procurement process.

“Taiwan’s access to vaccines continues to be slowed down by Chinese interference, while they insist we buy Chinese-made ones,” presidential spokesperson, Kolas Yotaka, said.

“If you really want to help, please don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall.”

China has said that Taiwan’s accusation is “fabricated out of nothing”, and it’s unclear what steps, if any, authorities in Beijing have taken to disrupt Taiwan’s dealings with BioNTech.

For years, though, it has stood between Taiwan’s public health and the rest of the world, blocking the island from participating in the World Health Assembly, the policy body of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

This latest move on China’s part “is a bleak illustration of how deeply entrenched the long-running conflict across the Taiwan Strait has become, with a degree of mutual distrust that not even a global medical emergency can allay”, Raymond Zhong and Christopher F Schuetze wrote in a piece for The New York Times yesterday.

Taiwan shouldn’t be forced to buy Pfizer-BNT shots from a Chinese broker. This isn’t healthy.

— Kolas Yotaka (@Kolas_Yotaka) May 26, 2021

“The crux of the problem is that a Chinese company claims the exclusive commercial rights to distribute BioNTech’s vaccine in Taiwan. And for many people in the self-governing democracy, buying shots from a mainland Chinese business is simply unpalatable,” they added.

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China said Taiwan’s accusation is “fabricated out of nothing”. Picture: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has blamed “Chinese intervention” for her nation’s vaccine shortage. Picture: AFP Photo/Taiwan Presidential Office

The Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s Lee Che-chuan told The Times that Beijing is telling Taiwan: “You are part of China. I can give you vaccines. But if you want to purchase them from some other countries, you have a political purpose: You’re trying to indicate you’re independent from China.”

“On the vaccine issue or the pandemic issue, I think China is trying to exploit any opportunity they can have,” he added.

China warns other nations not to ‘meddle’ in its affairs

Beijing has also objected to vaccine donations by the US and Japan to Taiwan, warning them against “meddling in China’s internal affairs” – though a former US defence department official responsible for managing bilateral relations with China and Taiwan said if anything, the donations show just how little the two nations are concerned about aggravating them.

“The donations were less about the China relationship than they were about helping Taiwan,” Drew Thompson told The Guardian.

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Only three per cent of Taiwan’s 23 million residents have received at least one dose. Picture: Sam Yeh/AFP

China warned Japan against “meddling” in its affairs after the nation donated 1.24 million AstraZeneca doses to Taiwan. Picture: STR/Jiji Press/AFP

“[Japan and the US] have a vested interest in supporting Taiwan. Taiwan is a major trading partner, a critical supply chain link, there’s Japanese expats in Taiwan, there’s strong affinity between two cultures.

“Japan is really doing this because it’s in their interest to keep the population of Taiwan healthy. You’re not supporting Taiwan just to antagonise China, and that gets lost a lot in these conversations.”