Taiwan's accusations of vaccine obstruction groundless: Spokesman

Taiwan's claim that the Chinese mainland obstructed it from buying COVID-19 vaccine products from a German company is groundless, said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, on Thursday.

The island originally planned to order 5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Germany's BioNTech, and the mainland obstructed it from signing the deal with the company, Chen Shih-chung, head of the island's epidemic command center, said recently.

"The island's claim is totally groundless and irresponsible, which once again exposes the unethical and bottomless political nature of some politicians from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party on Taiwan," Ma said.

In March, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group signed a contract with BioNTech to participate in the research and development of BioNTech's vaccine products and have exclusive rights to the vaccine in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, Ma said.

Taiwan media reported that some companies in Taiwan had sought to buy the vaccine from the Shanghai company in the second half of last year, but were blocked by Taiwan authorities.

Ma said island authorities should answer the question as to why they tried to bypass the Shanghai company to buy the vaccine from the German company and explain the real reason for the failure to sign the contracts for Taiwan residents.

"Taiwan has not been able to get the COVID-19 vaccine so far, and the island residents who are waiting for the vaccine are those who really suffer," he said.

"The DPP politicians who plotted to seek political gains at the expense of the people's well-being are extremely bad in nature," he added.

Ma called on DPP politicians not to shirk responsibility by spreading rumors and slandering the mainland.