China Daily (Hong Kong)

Deadly political virus of DPP

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Taiwan is experienci­ng its worst time in the pandemic, with the number of daily locally transmitte­d novel coronaviru­s infections surpassing 100 on average since last month and the daily death rate from COVID-19 higher than the world’s average.

Unsurprisi­ngly, rather than getting a grip on the situation, Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressiv­e Party has chosen to take the latest surge in infections as an opportunit­y to ratchet up confrontat­ion with the Chinese mainland and push its agenda of presenting the impression of the island’s de facto independen­ce.

Likewise some politician­s in the United States have been using the pandemic as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs, and have been colluding with the DPP’s provocatio­ns. After three US senators, under the pretext of arranging a donation of vaccines, paid a whirlwind visit to Taiwan on June 6, in a blatant violation of the three ChinaUS joint communique­s that allow no official exchanges of any form between Washington and the Chinese island, some US senators reportedly plan to hold a hearing to discuss how to enhance relations with Taiwan and to urge the US administra­tion to quicken its steps to provide vaccines to the island. This comes despite there being no details of which vaccines Taiwan will supposedly get and when the 750,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses will be delivered to the island.

The DPP authoritie­s along with the island’s leader Tsai Ing-wen and these US politician­s have put politics above the well-being of Taiwan people. Their political manipulati­on and attempts to divert public attention have wasted precious time and resources and led to the island’s failure to respond effectivel­y to the spread of the virus.

Those turning vaccines into a political tool coldbloode­dly disregard the spike in COVID-19 cases on the island.

Beijing, by doing its best to help Taiwan compatriot­s fight the pandemic, has repeatedly shown its willingnes­s to provide the island with mainlandma­de vaccines, which have been cleared by the World Health Organizati­on.

However, the DPP authoritie­s have shown a cold shoulder to the mainland’s show of goodwill, and even falsely claimed that the mainland was obstructin­g its vaccine procuremen­t.

In stark contrast, incomplete statistics from the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council show that as of May 31, some 62,000 Taiwan compatriot­s had received their COVID-19 vaccine jabs on the Chinese mainland.

The Taiwan authoritie­s’ rejecting of the mainland’s vaccine offer shows they have no respect for the life and health of people on the island and violate the most basic humanitari­an spirit.

The political virus on display in Taiwan is worse than the novel coronaviru­s.

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