A bipartisan group of lawmakers in Congress is pushing the Biden administration to share the country’s COVID-19 vaccine surplus with Taiwan.
More than 60 Republicans and Democrats signed on to a letter, led by Rep. Andy Barr, urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to prioritize Taiwan in vaccine deliveries in the Indo-Pacific region, citing its “adept” response and efforts “to counterbalance China’s weaponization of the global supply chain” with its mask donations to the United States.
“Taiwan is working to stem the spread of COVID-19 and avoid an economic lockdown,” the letter reads. “Such measures to slow the spread would not only impact Taiwan’s domestic economy but also have immense second order-effects on the United States’ own recovery by threatening Taiwan’s critical continued production of chips, semiconductors, and other electronics products essential to America’s technology and auto industries.”
Barr, a Kentucky Republican who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he wants to see the Biden administration help Taiwan as it sees an uptick in COVID-19 cases.
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“Taiwan is a trusted U.S. partner on global health, trade, and many other important areas,” Barr told the Washington Examiner. “At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan provided the U.S. with badly needed personal protective equipment.”
Lawmakers who signed the letter include GOP Reps. Elise Stefanik, Liz Cheney, Brian Mast, and Michael Waltz. Democrats include Reps. Sanford Bishop and Anna Eshoo.
The mainland Chinese regime has never controlled Taiwan, the last refuge of the forces defeated when the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949, and Blinken recently warned China that it would be “a very serious mistake” to invade now. U.S. strategists regard the island as a crucial link in a chain of democracies that impede Beijing’s ability to project military power against U.S. troops and allies in the Indo-Pacific region. The island is widely regarded as a success story in how its government handled the pandemic, but recent reports indicate that the stock of vaccines is running low as domestic COVID-19 cases are on the rise.
President Joe Biden announced on Monday that his administration would ship 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccines abroad by the end of June.
The plan to send the excess doses in the next six weeks comes in addition to the administration’s pledge to send as many as 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine overseas, provided the vaccine passes a safety review by the Food and Drug Administration.
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The administration’s plans to share its vaccines comes as the U.S. supply outpaces demand, with more than 273 million doses administered and a rate that’s on track to meet Biden’s vow to get 70% of adults at least one vaccine dose by July 4.
