The US is to donate 750,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, a delegation of three US senators said in Taipei yesterday.
The delegation made the announcement during a brief stopover in Taiwan.
The White House on Thursday announced that it aims to donate at least 80 million doses globally by the end of this month. The donation would be part of the first tranche of 25 million doses.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“It was critical to the United States that Taiwan be included in the first group to receive vaccines, because we recognize your urgent need and we value this partnership,” US Senator Tammy Duckworth said in a brief address at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), without mentioning the brand of the vaccines or when they were expected to arrive.
Duckworth was joined by US senators Dan Sullivan and Chris Coons in the three-hour visit, before departing back to South Korea at 10:30am. The Taipei visit was part of a larger tour of the Indo-Pacific region by the three senators.
The decision to make the donation followed consultations between the three lawmakers and White House staff, Duckworth said.
Photo: AP
“In the early days of the pandemic, Taiwan came to our aid with supplies of PPE [personal protective equipment] and other donations that helped save American lives,” she said. “On behalf of the American people, we want to thank you for that.”
Duckworth also shared her personal reasons for wanting to visit, saying that her mother’s family was among those who fled China’s Guangdong Province on foot to escape communist rule, and her father’s family has served in the US military stretching back to the American Revolutionary War.
“My family and I know the price of freedom, and I’m here to tell you that the United States will not let you stand alone,” she said. “We will be by your side to make sure that the people of Taiwan have what they need to get to the other side of this pandemic and beyond.”
Photo: CNA
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met with the delegation at the air force’s Songshan Command, where she thanked the senators and the White House for including Taiwan in the US’ first tranche of donations.
The vaccines are coming at a timely moment for Taiwan and once again demonstrate the “rock-solid” friendship between Taiwan and the US, she said.
The bipartisan group of senators has long shown staunch support for Taiwan.
Duckworth and Sullivan are members of the US Senate Committee on Armed Services and have repeatedly voted in favor of Taiwan, while Coons was a cosponsor of the Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act, and the Taiwan Assurance Act.
Coons is also a close friend of US President Joe Biden, making him the second of the president’s closest confidants to visit Taiwan in the past few months, following a visit by former US senator Chris Dodd in April.
The US plans to distribute three-quarters of the 80 million doses through the COVAX global vaccine sharing scheme, while the remaining one-quarter would be allocated to dealing with virus surges around the world, the White House said.
Additional reporting by Yang Chun-hui
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS