Many Taiwanese will not want the local vaccine, they won’t trust it, that’s why they travel to Japan with empty suitcases and come back with overweight luggage full of pills. Foreign stuff is the good stuff.
The government is aware of that and how they f’ed up, which is why we have this awkward situation of Mr Chen having to beg the US for vaccines.
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Semiconductors are not like barrels of oil that are fungible. TSMC is a contract manufacturer. Companies hire TSMC to produce chips for their needs.
Over 50% of TSMC’s 5nm production for 2021 is booked by Apple.
How would it work out for TSMC to break its contracts and reallocate production to customers at the behest of the Taiwan government because other countries agreed to give Taiwan vaccine?
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Not taking this deal is foolish pride.
Can’t blame Taiwanese for not wanting a vaccine that hasn’t gone through a Phase III trial.
Actually though, I think a lot will take it now. Look how fast people became willing to take AZ.
They don’t need to renege on current contracts just put Germany at the bottom of the priority list for future deals.
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Once more with feeling:
It is not lawful to import vaccines from China.
Guy
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There is no deal to be taken. Pfizer backed off the contract, and Fosun did not apply for authorization to sell the vaccine in Taiwan. No sign Shanghai Fosun still authorized: groups - Taipei Times
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Not expressing an opinion on the original question one way or another, but this argument is illogical. The law was created by the government and they have the capacity to change it if desired. It’s not some insurmountable obstacle ordained by god or the universe.
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It’s not China over here, the law is the expression of the will of the Taiwanese citizen. So regular democratic process need to be followed when changing the law.
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I’m not sure about that. But even if it’s true, the will of the average Taiwanese citizen would be the argument to put forward here, rather than laws regarding specific aspects of trade between the two countries, which aren’t immutable.
(And that would be a different survey than one targeting predominantly foreigners on Forumosa.)
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They are not immutable, but this is such a fundamental part of Taiwan politics, that even an elected government and parliament would not be able to change it unless either it was on its program when it was elected, or it would be voted via a referendum.
Don’t something like 20% of Taiwan’s imports come from China anyway? I thought it’s Taiwan’s biggest trading partner in terms of both imports and exports.
I get that certain categories of products may be excluded, and that may make sense (not my decision) – I’m just saying it’s not like there’s zero trade between the two countries at present.
Sure they trade what is allowed by the law and regulations. But that does not cover vaccines.
For those transactions there are other options but Taiwanese choose to trade with China due to better pricing. In this case China is forcing Taiwan to buy from China and wants to humiliate and subjugate.
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Taiwanese people don’t generally care about the different parties, they choose the one that serves Taiwan the best.
If this pandemic goes out of control because DPP refuses to deal with China, at least to get the BNT vaccine, then the people will choose KMT next time.
Not saying we have to get Chinese vaccines but if the only way we can get BNT is through China, and Pfizer refuses to budge, what choice do we have?
Or we can have level 4 lockdown until the end of the year…
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I think we would be able to get those vaccines through China but look at what China is now under XJP?
Look at their actions. How do you get around that. Our best bet is to look for other vaccines still. We wouldn’t magically get millions of Pfizer vaccine anyway and if we did they would come with a very heavy price.
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Once again, it bears repeating: this is not a Pfizer issue.
BnT is the company behind the vaccine. Pfizer acquired the rights to be BnT’s development and distribution partner for the vaccine everywhere in the world except in China, HK, Macau and Taiwan. Fosun got the rights to China, HK, Macau and Taiwan.
Why BnT gave the rights to a company that never realistically would be able to distribute the vaccine is beyond me. Obviously, politics were involved.
Again, I think it would be cool for Taiwan to make BnT look dumb and put it in the hot seat by saying that it’s prepared to offer $1.5 billion US for 46 million doses of the vaccine, to be purchased directly from Pfizer, not Fosun. This would be more than the price paid per dose by Israel.
Taiwan could also sweeten the deal by guaranteeing that it would buy future booster doses at the same price if boosters are needed.
If BnT was smart, with such an offer in hand, it could try to pay Fosun on the backend to stand aside. BnT is publicly traded so losing out on $1.5 billion in sales from a small country, plus future booster sales, is something shareholders might not be too happy about.
And then Taiwan should go to Moderna and up its order to cover the entire populatio and offer a premium to make sure it’s a priority and send a message to BnT that it done f*cked up.
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Trickle down economics at its finest, eh?
I hear you and agree. But surely you realise it is much bigger than that.
Thank you to president Ma who sold out taiwan to china and made us more reliant on them. Only to make use like an addict so when the ccp cuts us off and threathens us, like they do everywhere globally, we have to comply. This is why the kmt should be tried for fucking treason, the bastards totally fucked our future and we are starting to see the ramifications of it and starting to try and solve the problems the kmt administration forced upon its taiwanese citizens. I wouldnt be one bit surprised if the current kmt attempts to not prevent the virus whilst creating panic is inntentional in hopes of making the dpp look bad for the next election. They really are that low. And i HATE the dpp…but corruption is better than treason and a bunch of chinese traitors.
The freedom pineapple thing was stupid and not important, but its a popular social media share so lets use it. KMT literally sold out taiwan tech to china, opened trade so that almost all exports only go there without effort in trying to broaden the market potential, then the nazi CCP ramps up its economic warfare machine to start banning certian things from here and we are surprised for some retarded reason. Its not just pineapples…
This. Is. Absolute. Idiocy.
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So . . . does this mean you voted yes? 
Guy