ASEAN

China hits back at Taiwan over political pressure claims

CHINA has hit back at a suggestion by Taiwan's health minister that it may have used political pressure to derail a planned purchase of Covid-19 vaccines by the island nation.

Bloomberg reports Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying in a press briefing that Taiwan's government should stop hyping up political issues under the pretext of vaccine issues.

Her comments came after Taiwan's Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said in a radio interview that the government believed there was political pressure to scrap its vaccine deal with BioNTech.

Chen, didn't explicitly name China in the interview, but merely said "external forces".

He also said that Taiwan thought it was more prudent to speak directly to BioNTech about the purchase, rather than deal with China-based Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co, which secured rights in March to develop and market the vaccine across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Taiwan is seeking to purchase some five million doses of its Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine.

It was reported that Taiwan may even possibly acquire it via the World Health Organisation's Covax Facility, thereby not requiring approval from distributors.

Taiwan has already struck deals to buy 10 million doses of British drug maker AstraZeneca's vaccine, and five million doses of the American Moderna vaccine.

Meanwhile, South China Morning Post said the deal with BioNTech could still be clinched despite the possible pressure from Beijing.

BioNTech said in a statement, just hours after Chen's interview, that it was still planning to provide vaccines to Taiwan.

"BioNTech is committed to [helping to bring] an end to the pandemic for people across the world and we intend to supply Taiwan with our vaccine as part of this global commitment," the company said.

"Discussions are ongoing and BioNTech will provide an update," the statement said.

Chen had said Taiwan was about to sign a contract with BioNTech for the vaccine supplies last month, but the company called off the deal at the last minute, citing "internal disagreements and challenges about the global distribution of the vaccine".

China considers Taiwan part of its territory under its one-China principle and that it must be returned by force if necessary.

Beijing has suspended official exchanges with the island since Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party was elected Taiwanese president in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle.

Chen has also praised Germany as a trusted commercial partner of Taiwan, and added that despite all odds, he believed BioNTech would be able to sign the contract with Taiwan.

Asked whether this was related to Germany's recent call for Taiwan to help supply it with sophisticated chips in short supply in the German automobile industry, Chen said they were two different things.

Last month, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier had sought Taiwan's help to persuade chip manufacturers on the island – including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, the world's largest contract chip maker and one of Germany's main suppliers – to ease the shortage.

Taiwanese Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua said late last month that she had met executives, who pledged to help.

She also said that through a meeting with Thomas Prinz, Germany's de facto ambassador in Taipei - who handed her Altmaier's request – she had requested Germany's help to obtain vaccines for Taiwan.

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