Taiwan blames ‘external forces’ for blocking BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine deal. China says it had nothing to do with it

Taiwan blames ‘external forces’ for blocking BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine deal. China says it had nothing to do with it

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Ma Xiaoguang, a spokeswoman for the Chinese business office in Taiwan, said on Thursday that it was “pure fabrication” that Beijing intervened in the sale of vaccine to BioNTech to Taiwan, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
A day earlier, Taiwanese Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said in a radio interview that Taiwan and BioNTech would sign an agreement for 5 million doses of vaccine in December, when the company suddenly withdrew.

“In the process of (discussion of the agreement), I have always been concerned that external forces would intervene,” Chen said without naming a country. “We believe there was political pressure,” he said. “At the time, we were already preparing our press release. But some people do not want Taiwan to be too happy.”

In his statement on Thursday, Ma from the Chinese business office in Taiwan also accused Taipei of trying to circumvent BioNTech’s general agent in the Chinese Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group.

Fosun, a China-based company, signed a “strategic partnership agreement” with BioNTech last March that gives it the rights to develop and commercialize the German drugmaker’s coronavirus vaccine in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. .

But Chen said the Taiwanese government had never been in touch with Fosun, and rather spoke directly to BioNTech in Germany. BioNTech has also never asked Taiwan to negotiate with Fosun, he added.

Fosun did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. Leading Taiwanese pharmaceutical company TTY Biopharm, which was involved in discussions with BioNTech, declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement reached between the two companies.

BioNTech said in a statement on Thursday that talks with Taiwan are continuing. “BioNTech is committed to ending the pandemic for people around the world and we intend to provide our vaccine to Taiwan as part of this global commitment,” the statement said.

The concern that political pressure could prevent the agreement with BioNTech prevented Taiwanese Health Minister Chen from discussing it in public while negotiations were underway, he said in an interview on Wednesday.

At a news conference, Chen welcomed BioNTech’s statement, calling it ‘an initiative to send goodwill’. “We hope we can continue and finalize our original contract,” he said.

In December, when Taiwan and BioNTech were close to signing the agreement, Chen announced at a news conference that the self-governing island had secured nearly 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, including 4.76 million through the COVAX initiative, 10 million from AstraZeneca, and another five million from a company “completing the final confirmation.”

But shortly after the announcement, BioNTech withdrew from the deal.

While Chen did not name China, he made a thin veil to Beijing after being off the air during a trade holiday.

“It’s just like us (attempts to) attend the World Health Assembly,” he told the host, referring to the blocking of Beijing to attend Taiwan as an observer at the annual meeting of the World Health Organization since President Tsai Ing-wen entered service in 2016. .

A discouraging task

The cessation of the agreement between Taiwan and BioNTech is the latest example highlighting the problems in the worldwide distribution of vaccines, which according to health experts are an integral part of ending a pandemic that killed more than 2.4 million worldwide.
Although several companies have overcome scientific barriers to developing effective Covid-19 vaccines, their spread can be a daunting task, with the risk of being disrupted by various business, political and geopolitical tensions.

Beijing is demanding full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of nearly 24 million people located on the southeast coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two parties have been ruled separately for more than seven decades.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised that Beijing will never allow the island to become completely independent, and has refused to eliminate the use of force if necessary.

Tires across the strait have weakened since Tsai’s independent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power, and the pandemic has further weakened relations.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry attacked Taipei on Thursday, accusing him of “using the pandemic as an excuse to engage in political manipulation and raise political issues.”

“The Democratic Progressive Party must … do real things to promote the health and well – being of the people of Taiwan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a briefing.

Taiwan has been a rare success in the fight against coronavirus, thanks to its swift action to ban incoming travel from mainland China with the onset of the outbreak in Wuhan, as well as strict border controls and quarantine requirements throughout the pandemic. As of Friday, the island had reported only nine deaths and fewer than 1,000 infections, most of which were imported.

But in terms of vaccination, Taipei has lagged behind many other Asian governments. Chen had earlier told the state-run Central News Agency in Taiwan that the island could possibly start offering Covid-19 vaccines in June. Thanks to the successful fight against the virus, Taiwan is under less pressure for a rapid introduction of mass vaccination, unlike severely affected countries such as the United States and Britain.

Meanwhile, China has promised to make its vaccines a “global public benefit.” The Chinese government said this month that it was providing vaccination assistance to 53 countries and that it had exported doses to 22 countries. Taiwan is not on the list of recipients.

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