Taiwan’s Land Commission: Taiwan businessmen who received Xinguan vaccine in mainland China still need to be quarantined for 14 days after returning to Taiwan

With the recent news of the upcoming mass vaccination of the Xeonguan vaccine in China, many Taiwanese businesses are hoping to return to Taiwan without quarantine after receiving the vaccine in China. Taiwan’s Land Commission said on December 8 that there is currently no relaxation of the 14-day quarantine rule, and reminded Taiwanese in China to pay extensive attention to information about the safety risks of Chinese vaccines.

Chinese media reported that Wang Junzhi, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said last Friday (December 4) that 600 million doses of inactivated vaccines will be approved for marketing within the year. Chinese media reported Wang’s claim under the headline “Big news from China-made Xinguan vaccine” at a time when there is a global rush for Xinguan vaccine.

The Taiwan Freedom Times reported on Tuesday (Dec. 8) that it was revealed that “unificationists are spreading ‘vaccine propaganda’ to Taiwanese businessmen, saying that they are afraid that the Chinese-made vaccine will not be recognized by Taiwan for political reasons and that the quarantine will not be relaxed, thus questioning the government’s efforts to prevent Taiwanese businessmen from returning home.

In response, the Land Commission said on Tuesday that Taiwanese should pay close attention to information on the safety risks of Chinese vaccines, including doubts in the international health community about the transparency of Chinese vaccine development, and carefully consider the necessity of administering Chinese vaccines in order to protect their own health rights.

Some Taiwanese businessmen have previously called for a shorter quarantine time for Taiwanese businessmen returning to Taiwan for the Chinese New Year, modeled after the “business bubble” in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Korea. However, the Land Commission said that Taiwanese businessmen returning to Taiwan for the Spring Festival should still be quarantined at home for 14 days, as long as they meet the quarantine conditions at home, they can be quarantined at home.

The Taiwan Lianhe Zaobao recently reported that some Taiwanese merchants believe that Taiwan’s epidemic prevention strictly adheres to the quarantine ban, and Taiwanese merchants are not allowed to return home, so if the vaccine is admissible and can eliminate or shorten the quarantine time, Taiwanese merchants will hurry to return to Taiwan after vaccination. There is also a Taiwanese businessman who said that if the Chinese vaccine can be accepted by the World Health Organization or the European Union, there is no reason for Taiwan to be excluded from the vaccine. The Shanghai-based Taiwan Association Vice President Tsai Shiming said that the Taiwan Epidemic Command Center not only stated that it would not buy the mainland vaccine, but also disagreed with it as long as it was related to the mainland, and even discriminated against it, which is really a loss of scientific objectivity.

The Land Commission said that the government began to implement the “autumn and winter epidemic prevention program” on December 1, and the Epidemic Command Center has announced a number of measures to strengthen border quarantine, as well as community epidemic prevention and medical response to reduce the risk of infection; there is no relaxation of the 14-day quarantine rule for overseas returnees to Taiwan.