Surveys conducted by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for internal reference have shown that most Taiwanese would refuse to take a vaccine made in China, a party source said yesterday.
A survey by the DPP last week showed that 86 percent of respondents would refuse a Chinese vaccine, the source said, adding that among them, 66 percent identified as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supporters.
A DPP survey conducted in February showed that 60 percent of respondents were unwilling to take a Chinese vaccine, while 30 percent were willing to.
China has attempted to use vaccines to further its “united front” efforts, with Chinese state-run media recently reporting that Pfizer-BioNTech’s Chinese partner, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (上海復星醫藥集團), has obtained the right to market and distribute the BNT162b2 vaccine in Taiwan, China, Macau and Hong Kong, the source said.
However, Hong Kong on March 24 halted use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine distributed by Fosun after the company told the Hong Kong government that one batch of the vaccine had defective packaging.
Fosun’s supply of the vaccine is also reportedly set to expire at the end of next month.
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) on Sunday criticized China for using the sale of vaccines as a “united front” tactic.
“China ceaselessly pressures Taiwan, but now it wants to appear benevolent — just as Taiwan is facing a worsening pandemic — by selling Taiwan vaccines with defective packaging that will expire soon,” he said.
Separately, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) yesterday criticized the KMT and the China Unification Promotion Party for exacerbating attempts by China to sow disorder in Taiwan by calling for imports of Chinese vaccines.
The two parties’ actions would hurt the government’s COVID-19 response measures, she said.
“We stand by efforts to protect the nation. I hope that some people making trouble do not cause the Central Epidemic Command Center to show even the slightest lenience,” she said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS