Taiwan was close to signing a contract to secure 5 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine last year, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said yesterday, but the deal was halted at the last minute, with some speculating that it was due to Chinese interference.
Chen, who also heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, in December last year announced that Taiwan had secured nearly 15 million COVID-19 vaccine doses — including about 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and about 4.76 million doses from the global COVAX program — and that a contract to buy about 5 million doses from another company was about to be signed.
The center has not commented on rumors that a contract to purchase BNT162b2 vaccines was obstructed by Pfizer-BioNTech’s Chinese partner, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (上海復星醫藥集團), which had obtained the right to market and distribute the BNT162b2 vaccine in Taiwan and China, including Macau and Hong Kong.
Photo: CNA
In an interview with Hit FM radio host Clara Chou (周玉蔻), Chen yesterday for the first time confirmed that Taiwan was close to signing the contract with Pfizer-BioNTech, but the deal was halted at the last minute.
“We had been negotiating directly with BioNTech at the time ... and we had even prepared the news release” to announce the deal, he said.
“However, maybe someone does not want Taiwan to be too happy, so it [the contract signing] was halted,” he said.
He had to bite his tongue several times not to announce the deal at the center’s news conferences, because the deal had not yet been signed and he was afraid that an external force would intervene if he announced it too soon, Chen said.
Asked if Shanghai Fosun might have obstructed the deal, he said that many factors could have led to the result.
BioNTech said that there were “different internal opinions” and concerns over “global vaccine distribution,” he said, adding that the center would have to take even more care in such negotiations.
An analyst said that Beijing has previously used the pandemic to pressure Taiwan.
“China’s continued weaponization and politicization of people’s health — which should be apolitical — should not come as a surprise, especially given everything that has been going on with the WHO,” Jessica Drun, a Taiwan-China expert at the Project 2049 think tank, wrote on Twitter.
Chen said that he had been hesitant to answer questions about COVID-19 vaccine procurement in the past few months, because he had been worried that such a situation might arise, as the nation has faced many last-minute difficulties before attending World Health Assembly technical briefings or other international events.
He felt wronged when people criticized the center for not disclosing its progress in securing COVID-19 vaccines, but he was unable to reveal more details, Chen said, adding that he could only promise that it would release news as soon as a contract had been signed.
‘IMPORTANT PARTNER’: The new guidelines aim to encourage US engagement with Taiwan, which reflects a deepening relationship, the US Department of State said The US Department of State on Friday issued new guidelines governing US officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts, a move welcomed by Taipei as turning a new page in bilateral relations. Shortly before leaving office, then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo on Jan. 9 announced the cancelation of previous contact guidelines, which he said were “self-imposed restrictions” that attempted to appease the Chinese Communist Party regime in Beijing. However, the status of the guidelines has been unclear since US President Joe Biden entered the White House. Asked about the issue during a legislative session on Thursday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu
CONFIDENTIAL: The trip had not been made public until just before ex-senator Chris Dodd, and ex-state department officials Richard Armitage and James Steinberg arrived The government yesterday welcomed an “unofficial” delegation sent by US President Joe Biden, while another delegation led by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry was headed to Shanghai. Biden’s first delegation to Taiwan is made up of former US senator Chris Dodd, and former US deputy secretaries of state Richard Armitage and James Steinberg. They are to stay in Taiwan until tomorrow. Their arrival, on a chartered flight, had been kept confidential until media reported the visit yesterday morning, after which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a short notice that they were expected to arrive at 2:40pm. The flight landed at
‘IDEAL FIT’: A report on Sunday said that the Canadian government threatened to pull its support and funding from the HFX if the award was given to the president The government would respect the decision of the organizer of the John McCain Prize for Leadership in Public Service on whether it plans to award a prize to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. The statement was issued after US Web site Politico reported a day earlier that the Canadian government had warned the Halifax International Security Forum (HFX) not to give the award to Tsai for fear of provoking Beijing. “The ministry believes that if the Halifax International Security Forum confers the prize upon President Tsai, it would be an affirmation and honor for both
EXTREME WEATHER: Due to climate change, there is greater ‘interannual variability,’ meaning Taiwan is experiencing dramatically drier and wetter years, an expert said Despite a “less than ideal” amount of rain this month, the nation’s manufacturers “remain unaffected” by this year’s drought, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said yesterday. “It’s true that the weather forecasts for April are not ideal, but by continuing current water restrictions in central Taiwan, there should be enough water until the plum rain season arrives,” Wang said. Taichung and Miaoli County have been on “red alert” since Tuesday last week, with weekly water supplies to households and businesses on for five days and off for two days. Large parts of Taichung’s Deji Reservoir (德基水庫) are nothing but mud due
RSS