By Yimou Lee
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Beijing is promoting a state program that prioritizes Taiwanese in China for COVID-19 vaccines, raising concern within the Taiwanese government, which sees it as the latest Chinese tool to win over the island’s population.
China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, is making the offer free of charge at a time when the democratic island has not yet started vaccinating on its own, with Chinese government departments and state media quoting Taiwanese in China in support of the program.
“It shows the warmth and affection of the continent for us,” said a Taiwanese professor with the surname Wang, quoted in a post this month by the Department of Labor of the United Front of China, which is responsible for co-opting Chinese and non-Communists abroad.
For decades, Beijing has offered incentives, such as tax breaks and subsidies to the Taiwanese business community, which has about 400,000 people in China, but the move underscores a greater drive to get favors.
Wang Yang, the 4th leader of the Communist Party, this week instructed government officials to offer comprehensive benefits to Taiwanese in an attempt to give “a sense of gain” among Taiwanese in aid of “reunification with the motherland”.
It is unclear how many Taiwanese in China were vaccinated, but in Taiwan, officials are nervous about the program and say vaccines have become the last front line in China’s charm offensive.
“The tactic is to strengthen the loyalty of Taiwanese businessmen to the continent and to further increase the pressure on the Democratic Progressive Party,” a Taiwanese security official investigating the matter told Reuters.
The employee was not allowed to speak to the media and declined to be identified.
The Interior Affairs Council of Taiwan said in a statement to Reuters that vaccination is a matter for the medical profession and “should not be used as political propaganda”.
Taiwanese should “carefully assess the safety and necessity” of receiving vaccines in China, he said, adding that he would continue to monitor the situation.
Taiwanese government officials have repeatedly reminded people of the health “risks” related to Chinese vaccines and said that those receiving vaccines in China must still go through a 14-day quarantine when they return to the island. The import of vaccines is prohibited.
China’s Taiwanese Affairs Office referred to Reuters for recent observations made that the Taiwanese government was spreading “unfounded concerns” about Chinese vaccines for “political purposes”, and that China’s vaccines were “very safe” .
Although Taiwan has kept the pandemic in check thanks to effective and early prevention methods, the government is under increasing pressure amid a rare outbreak of internally transmitted COVID-19 cases.
Taiwan has ordered nearly 20 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 10 million from AstraZeneca Plc, but none will begin to arrive by March at the earliest.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee; additional reporting by the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)