By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Beijing proposes a state program that gives Taiwanese in China prefer COVID-19 vaccines, which is causing concern in the Taiwanese government, which considers it the latest Chinese tool to win the island’s population.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, is making the free offer at a time when the democratic island has yet to begin its own vaccinations, with Chinese government departments and state media quoting Taiwanese in China in support of the program.
“It shows the warmth and love of the continent towards us,” a Taiwanese teacher named Wang said this month in a report by the United Front Work Department of China, which is responsible for cooperating with overseas Chinese and non- communists.
Beijing has been offering incentives such as tax cuts and subsidies to the estimated 400,000-strong Taiwanese business community in China for decades, but the move underscores greater pressure to promote the favorite.
Wang Yang, the No. 4 leader of the Communist Party, this week instructed government officials to offer Taiwanese comprehensive benefits in an effort to give “a sense of profit” among Taiwanese for the benefit of “reunification with the motherland “.
It is unclear how many Taiwanese have been vaccinated in China, but in Taiwan, officials have been unnerved by the program, saying vaccines have become the latest frontline in China’s charming offensive.
“The tactic is to strengthen the loyalty of the loyal businessmen to the mainland and further put pressure on the ruling Democratic Progressive Party,” a Taiwanese security official investigating the matter told Reuters.
The officer was not authorized to speak to the media and did not want to be identified.
The Taiwanese Mainland Council said in a statement to Reuters that vaccination was a matter for the medical profession and that “it should not be used as political propaganda.”
Taiwanese should carefully evaluate the safety and necessity of receiving vaccines in China, he said, adding that it will monitor the situation.
Government officials in Taiwan have repeatedly reminded people of ‘health risks’ associated with Chinese vaccines, saying that those who receive the vaccines in China still have to undergo a 14-day quarantine when they return to the island. The importation of the vaccines is prohibited.
The Chinese business office in Taiwan referred Reuters to recent comments he made that the Taiwanese government had spread ‘unfounded concerns’ about Chinese vaccines for ‘political purposes’, and that China’s vaccines were ‘very safe’.
While Taiwan has kept the pandemic well under control thanks to early and effective prevention methods, the government has come under increasing pressure amid a rare outbreak of local COVID-19 cases.
Taiwan has ordered nearly 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 10 million from AstraZeneca Plc, but no one will start arriving in early March.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee; Additional Reporting by Beijing News Office; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)