Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday accused the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of attempting to derail production of Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s COVID-19 vaccine, most recently by demanding that the Ministry of Health and Welfare and three other agencies issue reports on its authorization process.
The TPP is following the KMT’s path by playing partisan politics and casting doubt on the process by which the domestic Medigen vaccine was granted emergency use authorization, in order to hamper its production, DPP legislative caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) told a media briefing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Lo showed an official document, bearing the TPP legislative caucus letterhead and dated yesterday, which asked four government ministries and agencies to each table a report on the emergency use authorization process for the Medigen vaccine.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The document specifically asked the Financial Supervisory Commission and the Ministry of Justice to present independent reports at an online meeting on Monday next week on the “stock price fluctuations of Taiwanese vaccine developers when the Ministry of Health and Welfare granted the emergency use authorization.”
The TPP also asked the health ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to each present a report at the same meeting to explain the reasons for granting a domestic vaccine emergency use authorization, “but not needing to conform to international standards,” and to explain “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs having issued fake news to endorse a certain Taiwanese vaccine developer before its test results were released.”
The letter said the meeting would be convened by TPP Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) and asked that the official representatives of each of the four government agencies present the reports.
The TPP asked to be provided with a list of attendees by 10am tomorrow.
“The TPP is plotting to derail domestic vaccine production, just like the KMT is doing,” Lo said. “It is preposterous for the TPP to do so by contravening the legislature’s rules, by issuing a letter to demand that these government bodies present reports when the legislature is in recess.”
Legislators should exercise their authority when the legislature is in session, and deliberations by political parties regarding oversight of government bodies are conducted at legislative committee meetings, Lo said.
He called on the four agencies not to respond to the TPP’s requests.
Lo said that the KMT has spread misinformation about the Medigen vaccine to mislead the public.
“The KMT has filed a lawsuit with the Taipei District Court, and has also requested that the Control Yuan conduct a probe into wrongdoing by government officials during the process,” Lo said. “We ask opposition parties to let science do the talking and not obstruct Taiwan’s vaccine production.”
“The KMT is colluding with the Chinese government, by helping China’s attempts at blockading us,” DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said.
“We urge KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) to refrain from the extreme tactics used by his party’s members, and instead provide suggestions on how to help Taiwan to fight the domestic [COVID-19] situation,” Cheng said.
“We ask Chiang to use reason. By filing a judicial complaint against Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), the KMT is obstructing the efforts of Chen and medical professionals working diligently to fight the [COVID-19] pandemic,” Cheng said.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
MUCH-NEEDED: After China demonstrated its capabilities to deploy vertical launching systems, Taiwan needs air defense systems such as NASAMS, a defense expert said The US’ approval of exports of three advanced air defense missile systems to Taiwan signified NATO’s goodwill toward the nation, a Taiwanese defense expert said. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday announced the US$1.16 billion sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and the US$828 million sale of AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar turnkey systems. The NASAMS is a network that uses ground-launched Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to intercept hostile aircraft, drones and cruise missiles. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the state-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said