When former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Chairman Morris Chang, representing President Tsai Ing-wen, participated in the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) “Informal Leaders’ Summit,” he mentioned that Taiwan’s overall vaccination rate remains inadequate and that Taiwan needs to acquire more vaccines as quickly as possible. The Kuomintang (KMT) believes the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government’s recent announcements that Taiwan has already secured sufficient vaccines are nothing but a façade. In addition, it has failed to proactively provide assistance to several counties and cities, including several counties and cities where the KMT holds office; the DPP has also failed to proactively provide assistance to NGOs purchasing vaccines. Yet, the DPP said at APEC that Taiwan doesn’t have sufficient vaccines: this is a grave self-contradiction and double standards.
The KMT states that our compatriots should all be sincerely grateful towards the countries and organizations that have been genuinely willing to lend a helping hand in order to ease Taiwan’s vaccine predicament.
However, the KMT has three questions for President Tsai Ing-wen, if the quantity of Taiwan’s vaccines is truly sufficient, as stated by DPP officials:
1) Why are there still numerous citizens who can only look at the vaccines and sigh, not knowing what month nor what year they can be vaccinated? There have even been numerous controversies regarding vaccination precedence due to insufficient vaccines.
2) Why did Chairman Chang, as APEC representative, need to let the whole world know that we need assistance at an international venue?
3) Why didn’t our Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) immediately announce to the international community that our nation no longer needs vaccine donations?
The KMT also states that recently, Premier Su Tseng-chang, Minister Chen Shih-chung, and Minister without Portfolio / Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng have unceasingly praised Taiwan for already having sufficient vaccines and have responded to the efforts of local governments and NGOs with either retorts or ridicule. Furthermore, the joint request from Chairman Johnny Chiang and the city/county leaders of Nantou, Yunlin, Hualien, and Taitung to meet with President Tsai and discuss purchasing the German BNT vaccine was met with empty rhetoric from the presidential palace and with political denouncement from the DPP. All of this clearly shows that the DPP has become so brazen that it doesn’t even bother hiding the fact that it cares more about political calculation than human life.
The KMT points out that although the DPP government cites the examples of various NGOs, such as the Yonglin Foundation/Foxconn, TSMC, Fo Guang Shan, the Sun Yat-Sen School, Tzu Chi Charitable Foundation, and the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce, all of which directly helped the people themselves, the DPP initially sought to inflict bureaucratic obstruction on these NGO’s. It was not until popular grievances boiled over and President Tsai Ing-wen was placed under immense pressure that she was compelled to give in and reluctantly concede. The people are already well aware of this. As of now, the vaccine purchase discussions of the four KMT city/county leaders still remain in the midst of central government negotiations. Sad!
To the DPP and the government, the KMT has this to say: your vaccine policy was obviously lacking in proactive deployment: you could have done something, but you didn’t. Now, after seeing NGOs putting in the effort to purchase foreign vaccines with their own money, and foreign countries donating vaccines to our country, you actually step forth to accept accolades. If this government, which ignores the above principles, remains complacent, entirely lacks the ability for self-reflection, and continues to take rash action without consulting others, the current situation will only descend further into chaos.
Lastly, the KMT emphasizes that the DPP government cannot even clearly state whether or not vaccines are sufficient, refuses to allow the vaccine procurement investigation committee, established via a bill initiated by the KMT Legislative Caucus, to hold a meeting and go over relevant information, and continuously holds double standards while being both arrogant and incompetent. The DPP government is entirely unworthy of the Taiwan people’s expectations and trust.
