The 1.13 million doses of AZ vaccine given to Taiwan by Japan will arrive in Taiwan on July 8. This is another helping hand to Taiwan following Japan’s gift of 1.24 million doses of AZ vaccine to Taiwan on June 4. What does it mean that Japan has provided vaccines to Taiwan twice in just over a month without compensation?
In the author’s opinion, it shows at least four things.
First, the Japanese are grateful to the Taiwanese.
Japan has twice given Taiwan a life-saving vaccine that it desperately needs, both times talking about being grateful for the assistance that the Taiwanese gave to Japan during the 311 earthquake.
On July 6, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshichika Mogi announced the decision, saying that 10 years ago, when the Great East Japan Earthquake (311 Earthquake) occurred, Taiwan was the first to donate money and Japan received a heartwarming variety of support from Taiwan, and now as the people of Taiwan face difficulties, Japan looks forward to providing vaccines to help prevent the expansion of the epidemic in Taiwan.
On June 2, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga announced the gift of vaccines to Taiwan, and on June 3, Japanese Foreign Minister Shigeki said in a reply to Constitutional Democratic Party lawmaker Shin-Hoon Paik, “Taiwan was the first to send donations when the 311 earthquake struck Japan. We need to help each other in times of difficulty.”
On March 11, 2011, a massive 9 magnitude earthquake with a tsunami struck Japan, causing heavy damage. The government and people of Taiwan donated at least 20 billion yen, the highest amount in the world, more than the total of 93 other countries that have donated. It is conservatively estimated that more than 1,000,000 metric tons of relief supplies were sent from Taiwan. Many Japanese people have always remembered this.
Second, the Japanese value the lives of Taiwanese people.
Traditional Chinese culture says that human life is a matter of heaven, meaning that the safety of human life is a matter of heaven, transcending the interests of individuals, parties, and nations. This is also what the Red Cross means when it saves lives on the battlefield, regardless of the enemy, which is humanitarian.
Because the Chinese Communist Party concealed the epidemic, the “Chinese Communist virus” spread from Wuhan to the rest of the world. By July 7, 2021, 185 million people had been infected and more than 4 million had died in 192 countries around the world. This is the deadliest global catastrophe since World War II.
In mid-May of this year, Taiwan suddenly experienced a surge of indigenous cases. The whole Taiwan was put on alert level 3, eight major establishments were closed and schools stopped attending. According to the Taiwan Epidemic Command Center, by May 24, the number of people vaccinated in Taiwan was 302,698, less than 1% of the country’s population. Getting the vaccine as soon as possible has become one of the keys to the prevention and control of the epidemic.
According to Chen Shih-chung, commander of the Taiwan Epidemic Command Center, on August 20 last year, Taiwan began negotiations with the German company Biontech (known in Taiwan as BNT) to purchase 5 million doses of the vaccine, but with many twists and turns, the contract was blocked by the Chinese Communist Party just as it was about to be signed.
Japan lent a helping hand at a critical moment involving the lives and safety of the people of Taiwan.
Japanese Senator Kentaro Asahi said that Japan has received warm assistance from Taiwan in the past, including during the 311 earthquake, and that it is more important to support Taiwan as soon as possible this time than any concerns. He said, “Japan’s desire to have the AZ vaccine arrive in Taiwan as soon as possible to temporarily relieve the people of Taiwan from the epidemic crisis is more urgent than considering the idea of opposition or backlash from China (Communist Party). So when the foreign minister announced the decision to donate the vaccine to Taiwan, the Diet was unanimous in its approval.”
According to Taiwan’s Shangpao newspaper, after learning that Japan would aid Taiwan with the vaccine, the Chinese Communist Party kept warning the Japanese side of the “risks” of such a move, citing the so-called “violation of the one-China principle”; the Chinese Communist Party’s tough attitude surprised the Japanese diplomatic system, saying. “When human lives are at stake, why are you still talking about ‘one China’?”
Third, Japan’s strategy toward Taiwan has taken a turn for the worse.
On the issue of Taiwan, Japan’s long-standing attitude has been to try to avoid confrontation with the Chinese Communist Party and not to offend it, adopting a so-called “ambiguous strategy.
However, after the outbreak of the Great Plague in 2020, the CCP blatantly reneged on its commitment to the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Hong Kong issue, pushing through the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law and turning Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” into a “one-party dictatorship”. In addition to military planes, warships and aircraft carriers disturbing Taiwan, more than 30 military exercises have been held from the Bohai Sea to the Yellow Sea to the East China Sea to the South China Sea; ultra-leftists within the CCP have been calling for the “unification of Taiwan by force”; the long-standing peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait has been broken unilaterally by the CCP, so much so that Some people think that “Taiwan has become the most dangerous place in the world”.
Taiwan is located at the key position of the first island chain. The first island chain starts from the Thousand Islands in the north, and goes south through Taiwan to the island of Borneo, including the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the West Pacific Ocean in the South China Sea. This is an important area for the free world, led by the United States, to prevent Chinese Communist forces from launching attacks on Japan and the United States.
If the Chinese Communist Party takes Taiwan, it could cut Japan’s “maritime lifeline” from the Middle East to Japan via the Strait of Malacca, the South China Sea, and the East China Sea.
The port of Su’ao in Taiwan is only 110 kilometers from Japan’s “Yonaguni Island”. If the Chinese Communist Party takes Taiwan, it may pose a direct threat to Japan’s mainland security.
In recent years, Chinese maritime police vessels have been patrolling the Diaoyu Islands on a regular basis, with as many as 333 days in 2020. On February 1 of this year, the CCP’s “Maritime Police Law” came into effect. The law stipulates that the Chinese maritime police can use weapons. This increases the probability of a gunfight or even armed conflict between China and Japan.
Taking Taiwan will change the global strategic balance and put Japan under the direct threat of the Chinese Communist Party. Japan and Taiwan have a sense of being at odds with each other.
By 2021, Japan’s strategy toward Taiwan will change from ambiguity to clarity: in the view of the Japanese ruling regime, maintaining Taiwan’s security is tantamount to maintaining Japan’s own security.
On July 5, Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said in a speech in Tokyo that if the Chinese Communist Party attacked Taiwan, Japan would consider it an “existential crisis situation” under the security law and might exercise its restricted right to collective self-defense, and that “the United States and Japan must work together to defend Taiwan. “The United States and Japan must work together to defend Taiwan.
The “state of existential crisis” is one of the necessary conditions for Japan to exercise its right to collective self-defense as authorized by Japan’s Security Protection Law. The right to collective self-defense can be exercised by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in the event of a forceful attack on another country that is closely related to Japan, resulting in “a state of danger that threatens the survival of the Japanese state and clearly subverts the lives and rights of its citizens at a fundamental level”.
The first time Japan gave Taiwan a vaccine, it was on June 4, and the flight number was JL809, which adds up to 8964. 8964 is very taboo for the Chinese Communist Party, which was involved in the massacre of students in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. However, in 2021, Japan no longer cares whether the CCP is taboo or not.
The fact that Japan has given Taiwan vaccines twice in a month or so shows that Japan is no longer as concerned about the opposition, protests, and censure of the CCP as it was in the past, and does whatever it thinks is right. Therefore, this matter is also one of the concrete manifestations of Japan’s change from ambiguity to clarity in its strategy toward Taiwan.
Fourth, the CCP is the biggest push for Japan to help Taiwan.
The Chinese Communist Party has more than 2 million troops, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, and intercontinental missiles, so it has a “big fist”; Taiwan is a small country with no nuclear weapons, so it has a “small fist”. However, Taiwan is “a force for good, a model of democracy, and a trusted partner” in the international arena.
Without the constant nuisance of the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan would be one of the happiest places in the world. 23 million people in Taiwan enjoy freedom of faith, freedom of speech, freedom from fear, freedom from want.
But the “big fist” Chinese Communist Party has been bullying the “small fist” Taiwan.
Because of this, in the four democratic votes in Taiwan last year – the presidential election, the legislative election, the recall of Kaohsiung’s mayor, and the election of Kaohsiung’s mayor – the people of Taiwan used their votes to elect the DPP, whom the CCP strongly opposes. The Chinese Communist Party became Tsai’s “best electioneer”.
The harder the CCP suppresses Taiwan, the more countries resent the CCP and the more support they give to Taiwan.
It is in the midst of the CCP’s all-out crackdown on Taiwan that U.S. relations with Taiwan have risen to their highest level in more than 40 years, and Japan’s relations with Taiwan have continued to warm, also rising to their highest level in more than 40 years.
On June 30, a new poll released by the Pew Research Center showed that 88% of the Japanese public has a negative view of the CCP, the highest percentage among 17 developed economies. The Japanese public’s attitude toward the CCP will undoubtedly influence the Japanese government’s decisions.
On June 5, Taiwan legislator Wang Dingyu said that the Chinese Communist Party has operated human health prevention as a political tactic, which is shoddy and disgusting. Before the Japanese vaccine plane was about to take off, the Chinese Communist Party minister in Japan personally went to the Japanese Foreign Ministry to protest and demanded that the plane be pulled down and slowed down for as long as possible. The Japanese must be very disgusted by this.
The World Health Organization was originally an organization that served everyone on the planet. On June 11, the Japanese Senate voted unanimously to pass a resolution asking countries to agree to Taiwan’s participation in the WHO from next year. After the resolution was passed, all members of the House stood up and expressed their support for Taiwan. This is a very rare scene in recent years.
On February 26, the Chinese Communist Party announced the suspension of import of Taiwan pineapples from March 1 in order to pressure the Democratic Progressive Party. Japan, Australia, Hong Kong countries and regions friendly to Taiwan have increased their orders. Japanese netizen Matsuda Keikyu posted in the Facebook association “Japan-Taiwan Exchange Square” that the Taiwan pineapple on the supermarket shelf costing 599 yen was twice as expensive as the Philippine pineapple which was not asked for 299 yen, but it was still snapped up by the Japanese people. Matsuda Keikyu said in an interview, because can’t see the Chinese Communist Party bullying Taiwan, specially called on everyone together for Taiwan pineapple cheer.
On April 28, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tweeted a photo of himself posing with Taiwan pineapples and praised how delicious they looked.
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has done too many “counterproductive” stupid things. But the CCP has lost the ability to reflect on itself. It is expected that it will continue to do so, pushing more countries against itself.
Is Japan’s provision of vaccines to Taiwan a deliberate attempt to antagonize the CCP?
One might ask: Why didn’t Taiwan use the vaccine from the Chinese Communist Party when the Chinese Communist Party has always expressed its willingness to provide vaccines to Taiwan? If Taiwan uses Japanese vaccines or if Japan gives vaccines to Taiwan, is that a deliberate attempt to antagonize the CCP?
The answer is: No.
When the European Union launched its vaccine passport on July 1, vaccines produced by “Chinese communist countries” were not among the approved vaccines.
According to Our World in Data, an Oxford University study that tracks the progress of global vaccination, the Seychelles, Chile, Bahrain and Mongolia have between 50 and 68 percent of their populations fully vaccinated, surpassing the United States, but are the countries with the worst epidemics in the world, with most of the vaccines administered in the four countries Most of the vaccines administered in these four countries are produced by two Chinese vaccine manufacturers, Sinopharm and Kexing.
On July 7, Indonesia reported for the first time that more than 1,000 people died from COVID-19 in one day, bringing the number of infections to a record 34,379.
The Indonesian government has received 104 million doses of the vaccine, of which more than 9 percent are the Chinese Communist Party’s Koxin vaccine. Recently, Novelty, Indonesia’s chief scientist in charge of the Koxin vaccine trial, died. “Kumparan news” reported that Novelia died from the New Coronavirus.
Reuters reports that, according to independent data group Lapor COVID-19, 131 health care workers have died in Indonesia since June, most of whom were vaccinated with the Coxin vaccine.
Conclusion.
What is the 1.13 million doses of vaccine that Japan has resupplied to Taiwan carrying? It is the universal values of freedom, democracy, rule of law, and human rights shared by Japan and Taiwan, which include respect for people, gratitude, kindness to others, cherishing of life, and humanistic care.
As long as Taiwanese people adhere to the universal values, they will surely be able to get more help.
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