As the US’ mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign continues at a record pace, one question under debate is what the administration of US President Joe Biden should do with its extra doses — and especially where to send them.
One country that should be at the top of a donation list is Taiwan, in recognition of the help that it provided to the US at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
After weeks of pressure, the Biden administration announced that it is now “looking at options to share American-made AstraZeneca vaccine doses.”
By summer, it is clear that anyone in the US who wants a vaccine would have received one. The US government has purchased 300 million doses each of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines — enough for 300 million people — plus tens of millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that are sitting in storage waiting for approval.
Taiwan — which set a gold standard for its COVID-19 response with fewer than 1,200 cases — has been slow to receive and administer vaccine doses. While Taiwan has ordered about 20 million doses from suppliers, more than 58,000 people, mostly healthcare workers, have received at least one dose.
The slow rate is attributed to doubts over the AstraZeneca vaccine’s safety, potentially leading to their expiration by the end of this month if not used.
Considering the danger of the many virus variants surging around the globe, the administration of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should work to bolster public receptiveness to whatever vaccines are available. Taiwan has made it this far in the pandemic; it would a shame for a lapse to occur due to vaccine hesitancy.
The slow pace at which Taiwan is receiving COVID-19 vaccines is nothing particularly unique. Countries around the globe are not receiving what they paid for and are having to lower their vaccination goals as a result.
However, Taiwan has faced another, unique set of vaccine issues related to Chinese interference. Taipei has encountered issues in its effort to acquire 5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and has blamed Beijing for meddling in the process. The doses would be manufactured in Shanghai, so Beijing can exert some influence in this regard.
Taiwan’s unique geopolitical position allows China to pressure companies to spurn it. Beijing has not shied away from using its economic heft to get countries and private corporations to follow its line with regards to Taiwan.
It has worked on clothing companies and airlines, and now that strategy has worked on pharmaceutical companies.
Given Taiwan’s difficulties, the Biden administration should help the nation. When the US had massive personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages at the beginning of the pandemic last year, Taiwan donated millions of masks.
Taiwan has donated more than 30 million surgical masks to countries around the world, including more than 12 million to the US through its “Taiwan can help” campaign. Those donations still continue one year later.
At a time when US healthcare workers were using trash bags and bandanas for protection, Taiwan provided much-needed PPE. Those masks no doubt saved the lives of healthcare workers at a critical juncture.
The US owes Taiwan a debt for these PPE donations. The best way for Washington to repay this debt is to provide Taiwan with something that it could use right now: vaccine doses.
Such a gesture would also reward the proper way to help those in need — a stark contrast to how Beijing carried out a similar donation campaign. As Taipei was quietly donating PPE around the world, Beijing pushed countries to express public praise and thanks for receiving donations from China. Some of those donations proved to be defective.
The difference in approach between Taipei and Beijing has continued into this year with vaccine acquisition. China reportedly pressured Paraguay into switching diplomatic relations from Taiwan to China in exchange for millions of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines.
Taiwan worked with India, which provided Paraguay with 100,000 doses. By working with India to provide Paraguay with vaccines, Taiwan showed that it can work with other partners to help countries in need.
Taiwan has its own vaccines in trials. If approved, they could be ready for mass production by July. A best-case scenario would be for Washington to help Taipei complete its domestic vaccination efforts before a Taiwanese vaccine is ready — thus freeing up another vaccine for use in countries struggling to contain the pandemic.
Instead of working with India — which is facing a terrifying surge in COVID-19 cases and related PPE shortages — to provide doses, Taiwan could become another trusted vaccine provider to other countries finding it difficult to acquire them.
As the pandemic worsens around the globe, having another vaccine ready for distribution would be another example of Taiwan helping countries in need.
While Taipei cannot expect countries to switch diplomatic relations, a strong soft power campaign centered around no-strings-attached PPE and vaccine donations could help strengthen informal ties and potentially create an even better case for participation in international organizations.
Taiwan has proven itself to be a reliable partner for the US, despite its geopolitical limitations.
The Biden administration has expressed strong support for Taiwan in its initial months, most recently by sending an unofficial delegation to Taipei to provide a “personal signal” of Biden’s support. Its initial signals and messages are a great first step as the administration begins to set its policy agenda.
When healthcare workers in the US and around the globe needed PPE, Taiwan stepped up. Now, the US has an abundance of vaccines. The Biden administration should return the favor by providing Taiwan with some of its excess doses.
Thomas Shattuck is a research fellow in the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is also a member of Foreign Policy for America’s NextGen Foreign Policy Initiative.
In a meeting with Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Victor Harvel Jean-Baptiste on Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) vowed to continue providing aid to Haiti. Taiwan supports Haiti with development in areas such as agriculture, healthcare and education through initiatives run by the Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund (ICDF). The nation it has established itself as a responsible, peaceful and innovative actor committed to global cooperation, Jean-Baptiste said. Testimonies such as this give Taiwan a voice in the global community, where it often goes unheard. Taiwan’s reception in Haiti also contrasts with how China has been perceived in countries in the region
On Monday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) delivered a welcome speech at the ILA-ASIL Asia-Pacific Research Forum, addressing more than 50 international law experts from more than 20 countries. With an aim to refute the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) claim to be the successor to the 1945 Chinese government and its assertion that China acquired sovereignty over Taiwan, Lin articulated three key legal positions in his speech: First, the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Declaration were not legally binding instruments and thus had no legal effect for territorial disposition. All determinations must be based on the San Francisco Peace
On April 13, I stood in Nanan (南安), a Bunun village in southern Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪), absorbing lessons from elders who spoke of the forest not as backdrop, but as living presence — relational, sacred and full of spirit. I was there with fellow international students from National Dong Hwa University (NDHU) participating in a field trip that would become one of the most powerful educational experiences of my life. Ten days later, a news report in the Taipei Times shattered the spell: “Formosan black bear shot and euthanized in Hualien” (April 23, page 2). A tagged bear, previously released
The world has become less predictable, less rules-based, and more shaped by the impulses of strongmen and short-term dealmaking. Nowhere is this more consequential than in East Asia, where the fate of democratic Taiwan hinges on how global powers manage — or mismanage — tensions with an increasingly assertive China. The return of Donald Trump to the White House has deepened the global uncertainty, with his erratic, highly personalized foreign-policy approach unsettling allies and adversaries alike. Trump appears to treat foreign policy like a reality show. Yet, paradoxically, the global unpredictability may offer Taiwan unexpected deterrence. For China, the risk of provoking the
RSS