China Blasts Suggestion It Blocked Taiwan Vaccine Purchase

  • Taiwan, BioNTech talks ongoing, health minister still hopeful
  • Beijing accuses Taiwan of using vaccine for political ends
Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg
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China’s government hit back at a suggestion by Taiwan’s health minister that it used political pressure to derail a planned purchase of Covid-19 vaccines by the island.

Taiwan’s government “should stop hyping up political issues under the pretext of vaccine issues,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a daily briefing in Beijing on Thursday, where she did not explicitly deny that China had interfered in the deal.