Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members of abusing their “special privileges” to receive COVID-19 vaccinations ahead of schedule.
DPP legislative caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said that the KMT had orchestrated a conspiracy campaign.
KMT officials misled the public by denigrating the government’s efforts to obtain vaccines, and spread disinformation on the supposed ill effects of COVID-19 jabs to sow fear in society and create distrust in the government, Lo told a briefing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
“KMT officials spread fabricated news against the AstraZeneca vaccine. They pushed these lies to make people hesitant to receive the jabs, thereby giving themselves the chance to jump the line to be vaccinated through their connections and privilege,” Lo said.
KMT Central Standing Committee member Sean Lien (連勝文) said online that the AstraZeneca vaccine had adverse effects, Lo said.
“We later found out that his father, Lien Chan (連戰), had already received the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Lo added.
“Former KMT legislator Ting Shou-chung (丁守中) urged people to receive Chinese vaccines and publicly said that he would take the lead in doing so. However, Ting has been found to have received the AstraZeneca jab last month, by using his connections to jump the line ahead of people on the priority vaccination list,” Lo said.
Another example is former KMT legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), who has said that Japan donated AstraZeneca vaccines to Taiwan because Japanese did not want them, and called Taiwan a “vaccine beggar,” he said.
However, “Chang himself used his special privilege to get the AstraZeneca jab at E-Da Hospital in Kaohsiung. So he took the jab that he said Japanese did not want, while he continued to accuse the government of being a ‘vaccine beggar,’” he added.
Lo also said that former KMT Yunlin County commissioner Chang Jung-wei (張榮味), former KMT legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) and other prominent KMT figures received the AstraZeneca vaccine by using their connections to jump ahead of eligible people on the priority list.
DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said that Taiwan initially experienced difficulty in obtaining vaccines, and later received donations from Japan and the US.
“We see KMT members striving to get their shots. They act like the wealthy elite class, as they look down upon regular people, while using their privilege to jump ahead of the vaccination line,” Cheng said.
DPP legislative caucus director-general Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said that a probe into Ting’s case found that Cheng Hsin General Hospital in Taipei allegedly had more than 100 people on its “special privilege” list.
KMT members and other people also allegedly skirted regulations to receive shots ahead of the priority list at Good Liver Clinic and Dianthus Pediatric Clinic in Taipei, Liu said.
“The Taipei City Government has reportedly obtained these ‘special privilege’ lists. However, investigators from the city’s Ethics Department in their report did not reveal all the names. We call on the Taipei City Government to fully disclose all those who had been vaccinated,” she said.
“Medical personnel had to wait in line according to the priority list. The same goes for other people working on the frontline in contact with potentially infected people. People will not accept line jumping to get jabs through connections and special privilege,” Liu said.
“We demand that the Taipei City Government stop concealing the information and shifting the blame to others. It must make a full public disclosure right now.”
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS