For the first time on Wednesday, Taiwan directly accused China of blocking a deal with German firm BioNTech for Covid-19 vaccines.Taiwan was so close to sealing the deal with the German plant, but because of China’s intervention, still the contract was not signed, in a meeting of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
According to South China Morning Post, this is the first time Taiwan has directly accused Beijing of blocking a deal with BioNTech.Taipei had previously “smoothly” ordered shots from AstraZeneca in Britain and Moderna in the United States.
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.
China has repeatedly denied trying to block vaccines for Taiwan and has offered to provide them itself to the island as a gesture of goodwill.China has accused Taiwan of putting up political obstacles over the vaccine offer.
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group signed a deal with BioNTech last year to supply its mRNA vaccines to mainland China, and in March offered to supply some of those doses to Taiwan. Under the deal, Fosun was given the exclusive rights to develop and commercialise the vaccines in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Taiwan is witnessing a new surge in the Covid-19 crisis. It has reported 635 new coronavirus cases and 11 deaths on Wednesday.
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