File Photo: Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. Photo:Xinhua

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council slammed rumors that the Chinese mainland pressured German Biotech company BioNTech (BNT) not to sell COVID-19 vaccines to the island, saying that the Taiwan authorities' complaint of a so-called difficult situation is untenable and results from its own anti-mainland political maneuvers. 

The allegation of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority is totally fabricated and false, which once again exposed the bottomless political nature of some DPP politicians, said Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at a press conference on Thursday. 

Ma said Taiwan media reported that some Taiwan companies had sought to purchase vaccines in the second half of 2020 from Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group, which has the exclusive rights to sell BNT vaccine to Taiwan, but they were stopped by the Taiwan authorities. 

Fosun signed an agreement with BNT in March 2020 to participate in the research and development of COVID-19 vaccines and have the exclusive agency rights in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, he said. 

"Why did the DPP authority bypass Fosun to purchase vaccines from BNT? Why did they deliberately conceal the fact that Shanghai Fosun Group is involved in vaccine development? What is the real reason for the failure to sign the contract?" he asked.

The so-called difficult situation that the DPP authorities claimed they are in is untenable and a self-contradiction. It is their political maneuverings seeking to oppose the mainland that actually led them to a situation where the people in the island could not receive COVID-19 vaccines on time, he said. 

Ma urged the DPP authorities to stop making conspiracy theories and find the right way for the sake of the people's welfare. 

Global Times