“In the process of (discussing the deal), I have always feared that external forces will intervene,” Chen said, without naming any country. “We think there was political pressure,” he said. “We had already prepared the press release at the time. But some people do not want Taiwan to be too happy.”
In his statement on Thursday, Ma from the Chinese business office in Taiwan also accused Taipei of trying to “bypass” BioNTech’s general agent in Greater China, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group.
But Chen said the Taiwanese government had never been in touch with Fosun and instead spoke directly with BioNTech in Germany. BioNTech also never asked Taiwan to negotiate with Fosun, he added.
Fosun did not respond to CNN’s request for comment. The main Taiwanese pharmaceutical company TTY Biopharm, which was involved in talks with BioNTech, declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement between the two companies.
In a statement on Thursday, BioNTech said talks with Taiwan were ongoing. “BioNTech is committed to helping eliminate the pandemic for people around the world, and we intend to provide Taiwan with our vaccine as part of this global commitment,” the statement said.
Concern that political pressure could prevent the deal with BioNTech kept Taiwan’s health minister Chen from discussing in public while negotiations were underway, he said in an interview Wednesday.
At a news conference on Thursday, Chen welcomed BioNTech’s statement and called it “an initiative to send goodwill.” “We hope we can continue and complete our original contract,” he said.
But shortly after this announcement, BioNTech gave up the transaction.
While Chen did not call China, he made a thin veiled blow to Beijing after it went off the air during a trade break.
A daunting task
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of nearly 24 million people off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the two sides being ruled separately for more than seven decades.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has promised that Beijing will never allow the island to become fully independent and has refused to rule out the use of force if necessary.
The ties between the straits have broken since Tsai’s independence-oriented Progressive Democratic Party (DPP) came to power, and the pandemic has further strained relations.
On Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry hit Taipei, accusing it of “using the pandemic as an excuse to engage in political manipulation and raise political issues.”
“The Progressive Democratic Party should … do some real things to promote the health and well-being of the people of Taiwan,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a briefing.
Taiwan has been a rare success in the fight against coronavirus, thanks to its rapid action to ban travel from mainland China to the onset of the Wuhan outbreak, as well as the imposition of strict border controls and quarantine requirements throughout the pandemic. As of Friday, the island has reported only nine deaths and fewer than 1,000 infections – most of them imported cases.
China, meanwhile, has vowed to make vaccines a “global public good.” The Chinese government said this month that it is providing vaccination aid to 53 countries and exporting doses to 22 countries. Taiwan is not on the list of these recipients.