Image source,Taiwan president office
TSMC Chairman Liu Deyin (first from left) and Hon Hai Director Guo Taiming (second from left) were invited to meet with Tsai Ing-wen (first from right), which was regarded as an important turning point in the procurement of BNT vaccines.
The purchase of the BioNTech vaccine (called BNT in Taiwan, Fubitai in Hong Kong and Macau, and Pfizer Vaccine in Europe and America), which has been boiling for many days in Taiwan, has made a breakthrough this week.
Taiwan’s two major electronics manufacturers, TSMC and Hon Hai, announced on Monday (July 12) that they had signed a four-party contract with Shanghai Fosun and Yuli Pharmaceutical, confirming the purchase of 10 million doses of BNT vaccine, each of which will be funded by the two companies to purchase 5 million doses for donation The Taiwan government is expected to arrive in Taiwan at the end of September at the earliest. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group also issued an announcement on the evening of the 11th, announcing the transaction.
A vaccine procurement that seems urgent and not difficult to the outside world takes a long time. According to external analysis, since the government started to purchase BNT vaccines in Taiwan last year, and finally confirmed the order by the two companies, the process can be described as a twists and turns, involving cross-strait governments, the intervention of the United States and Japan, and even the attitude of the vaccine-producing country Germany. This vaccine purchase, which was originally a commercial nature, was given a strong political color during the sensitive period of cross-strait relations.
Behind the rare procurement model
It is up to the company to purchase such a large number of vaccines throughout the process, and the government is responsible for reviewing and deciding whether to approve it. This vaccine procurement model is very rare in the current global new crown epidemic prevention operations.
The head of Hon Hai Group Guo Taiming, at the end of May when the epidemic in Taiwan began to spread, applied to the government for the purchase of BNT vaccine. The Tsai Ing-wen government stated at the time that Taiwan could not agree to purchase according to the “Fubitai” sales model in Hong Kong and Macau. . The reason is that vaccines are a national security issue and need to be handled by the central government. At that time, this statement triggered a backlash in Taiwanese society, which was deeply caught in the “vaccine panic”.
Opposition parties criticized Tsai Ing-wen for blocking vaccine imports on the grounds of ideology, and critics said that the DPP “will turn against China” and refused to allow Fubitai or Kexing vaccines to enter Taiwan. The media with different positions discussed intensely, causing people I feel the tearing and opposition in Taiwan’s political arena again.
Dr. Su Ziyun of the National Defense Security Research Institute, a Taiwan think tank, analyzed to the BBC that Taiwan could not accept the Fubitai model because Taiwan would be regarded as a “Greater China Region” in the contract and would be equivalent to Hong Kong and Macao. The Tsai government and many Taiwanese people find it difficult to accept. In addition, the current COVID-19 vaccine is like a strategic material that requires the national government to provide guarantees and exemptions from manufacturers, so it is difficult to obtain it entirely through private companies.
Su Ziyun also said that Beijing is also observing how to use the Taiwan epidemic to carry out a “united front” against Taiwan to promote the Koxing vaccine into Taiwan. In the chaotic local Taiwan epidemic, the political power of the Tsai Ing-wen government is weakened.
But Beijing has consistently denied allegations of interfering in Taiwan’s procurement of vaccines. After Hon Hai Guo Taiming confirmed the signing of the contract with Fosun this Monday, he also posted a message on Facebook, thanking all walks of life, and emphasizing that Beijing has not “guided and interfered.”
The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China also stated at the next day’s press conference that it criticized Taiwan’s claims of Beijing’s interference in vaccine procurement as “self-defeating.”
Image source,facebook Terry Gou
There are other reasons for the successful signing of BNT purchase orders between TSMC and Hon Hai. Reuters quoted a Taiwanese official who was familiar with the procurement negotiation process as saying that Taiwan’s accusations against the mainland for obstructing vaccine procurement actually helped Taiwan, prompting the United States and Japan to take action, donating nearly five million doses of vaccines, and alleviating Taiwan’s society. Vaccine “panic”.
Various statements have undoubtedly enhanced the dramatic effect of this drama.
Vaccine Crisis and Approval Crisis
Image source,EPA
Chen Shizhong, head of Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center, revealed that the procurement of BNT vaccine was suddenly interrupted at the beginning of this year.
Even if the BNT vaccine was finally successfully purchased, after Taiwan fell into a local epidemic this year, the vaccine and medical energy provided were not enough, and the local epidemic prevention policy was different from the central government. So far, hundreds of people have died of the new crown, causing public grievances. Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP government are caught in the biggest approval rating crisis since they came to power in 2016.
In fact, the Taiwanese government started contacting BioNTech at the end of last year, hoping to purchase 5 million doses of vaccine. However, in February 2021, Taiwan’s Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shizhong stated that on the eve of the contract, the factory suddenly had an opinion on the word “my country” in Taiwan’s official press release. After the Taiwan government changed “my country” to “Taiwan”, The signing process was suddenly interrupted.
In May of this year, the local epidemic broke out in Taiwan. The vaccine purchased from Oxford/AstraZeneca (called AZ Vaccine in Taiwan) was temporarily banned from export by India, a major foundry country, due to the local epidemic. As a result, Taiwan was not able to receive the goods. And the deaths caused the whole Taiwan to fall into a vaccine panic, and public grievances abounded. While Tsai Ing-wen was in a political crisis, mainland China continued to release information. In addition to criticizing the Tsai government, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council directly asked the Taiwanese government whether to accept Kexing vaccine into Taiwan.
Image source,Getty Images
Taiwan currently administers two vaccines, AstraZeneca and Modena.
Taiwan’s opposition KMT Chairman Jiang Qichen and former President Ma Ying-jeou also spoke and accused the Tsai Ing-wen government of intending to use Taiwan’s “domestic vaccine” to block the import of BioNTech vaccines, regardless of the lives of the people. Former Minister of Culture Long Yingtai also posted on Facebook, alluding to the “cold-blooded” epidemic prevention commander Chen Shizhong, with political priority.
According to the latest poll released by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation this week, the DPP’s approval rating has dropped by 15 percentage points to 28% in the past three months. However, the KMT did not receive more support, maintaining a support rate of about 19%, and the number of neutral voters soared to 48.2%.
The political crisis of the Cai government began to ease after the United States and Japan intervened. In early June, Japan announced the donation of 1.24 million doses of AZ vaccine to Taiwan and arrived a few days later. After that, the United States donated more than two million Modena and AZ vaccines to Taiwan to relieve Taiwan’s vaccine panic.
In the end, Tsai Ing-wen agreed with Hon Hai to purchase vaccines, and Taiwan’s new crown crisis gradually eased. However, outside of Hon Hai, Tsai Ing-wen invited TSMC to join the BNT vaccine procurement, which was seen by the outside world as a move to change the government’s passive image and offset Hon Hai’s pressure on the palace.
A happy ending for all parties?
Wang Hao, a doctor of international relations at Oxford University in the UK, told the BBC Chinese that there is no evidence to prove that the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council or Beijing has pressured Fosun to block the sale of vaccines to Taiwan. However, he analyzed that Taiwan has placed an order for AZ or Modena vaccines through the Covax mechanism last year. Only since purchasing the BNT vaccine alone last year, it has faced many difficulties and can indeed see resistance.
One thing that the outside world has noticed is that Tsai Ing-wen has invited TSMC, which has a good relationship with him, to join and purchase the BNT vaccine with Hon Hai. This is considered to be one of the keys to successful procurement. During the negotiation with BioNTech, TSMC reported that it might set up a factory in Dresden, a large city in eastern Germany.
On June 30, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo admitted that the president of TSMC had talked to her, “asking the United States for assistance in obtaining the new crown vaccine.”
Taiwan political commentator Chen Minfeng told the Taiwan media that according to her sources, TSMC’s conversation with the Minister of Commerce should be a signal to Beijing or Fosun and Germany, meaning that if Taiwan continues to be obstructed in this purchase, the United States It will sell the same Pfizer vaccine to TSMC and BNT directly through Pfizer.
Song Wendi, a lecturer at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Australian National University (ANU), analyzed to the BBC that although the United States has held high values and technological competition with China, it still regards “fighting without breaking” as its highest objective at the diplomatic level. The United States is more willing to assist in the form of multilateralism. Therefore, in terms of vaccines, Japan has donated vaccines to Taiwan several times. He also said that through low-key diplomacy, the United States urged the governments of the EU leaders to exert influence and assist European private companies in vaccine negotiations with Taiwan.
“Compared with the unilateral actions of the United States from beginning to end, this is changed to the broad Western apportionment, and the form of multiple democratic governments taking turns will undoubtedly reduce political sensitivity. It not only reserves room for maneuvering on other issues in the US-China negotiations, but also Give the Beijing government a lower level of acquiescence.” Song Wendi added.
In other words, this procurement case is a struggle that has no losers but is time-consuming and laborious. Wang Hao believes that in the end everyone has the political points they want: TSMC and Hon Hai Guo Taiming have gained popularity in Taiwan society, Tsai Ing-wen temporarily relieved political pressure, Germany got rid of “pro-China” and passively handled the Taiwan vaccine agreement Negative image. Shanghai Fosun sold tens of millions of vaccines and made high profits, while Beijing can continue to claim that Taiwan needs China to help obtain vaccines.
However, the outbreak of the local epidemic in Taiwan has led to a rapid increase in confirmed cases to more than 10,000, nearly 700 deaths, and a mortality rate of nearly 5%. The private economy has hit hard, and the society still criticizes the government’s epidemic prevention policies and vaccine preparations. All still need to be blamed and corrected.