During the weekly Central Standing Committee meeting on May 26th, KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang focused his remarks on the latest Covid-19 outbreaks in Taiwan, stating that the severity of the pandemic has exceeded expectations and its impact on life continues to expand. Chairman Chiang reminded everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible, and at the same time do a good job in pandemic prevention so that the chain of virus transmissions would be blocked and the health of ourselves, our family members and friends would be protected.

Chairman Chiang pointed out that the pandemic did not come suddenly out of nowhere. Over the past year or so, the general public has been cooperative in Covid-19 prevention efforts, yet the government has failed to make full preparations in that regard...The government has failed to put in place relevant measures to counter the rapid rise of community infections, nor has it strived to increase Covid-19 testing capacity. While there is a massive shortage of rapid Covid-19 testing and hospital beds, the government continues to flip-flop on the number of vaccine doses it plans to purchase. This February, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) claimed that the government would obtain 20 million doses of vaccines from abroad in the first quarter. However, yesterday, the command center pointed out that we will only receive 2 million doses in June and 10 million doses in August, a total of just 12 million doses. The current stockpile of vaccine doses is far from enough for the people of Taiwan to achieve a 60% coverage rate, far short of the approximately 30 million doses of vaccine required. Given the situation, how can people not be anxious and angry? 

Chairman Chiang said that under such difficulties, the government and the people should have gone hand in hand in the fight against the Covid-19. However, the ruling party sees nothing but power struggle. It is rather disappointing that the government fails to put Covid prevention in the first place. The ruling party abuses freedom of speech through the often self-directed, self-performed political shows, highlighting the fact that the government shows no sympathy or compassion for the people at all. The government does not take procuring vaccines seriously but engages in fearmongering. Chairman Chiang took New Taipei City as an example, pointing out the urgency of New Taipei City’s Covid-19 prevention efforts given the city’s largest population in Taiwan. Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) set up a number of early preventive measures followed by the central government, but was still lashed out indiscriminately by the DPP and its supporters, which is ridiculous.

Another instance. Kinmen is a county that lacks primary medical resources with only four negative pressure isolation wards. It is impossible for Kinmen to withstand the severe impact of the pandemic. Under such circumstances, Kinmen County Magistrate Yang Cheng-wu (楊鎮浯) sent a letter to the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), hoping to bolster quarantine facilities, but the letter was paid no heed. As a result, he set up a quick screening station on his own, only to be thwarted by the CECC. . The CECC finally relented under the enormous pressure of public opinion. The incident highlights the fac that t the central government has a total disregard for citizens living in outlying islands The chairman questioned that the central government does not treat these citizens as its own people, saying that the so-called “humility ” as stressed during President Tsai’s first inauguration is totally gone. 

The chairman added that it is the central government’s statutory responsibility to exhaust all the possibilities to obtain sufficient vaccines for the people. However, when everyone is desperate for lifesaving vaccines, the central government passively applies rules governing commercial drug certificates to deal with emergency situations. The central competent authorities can interpret or change these rules, but they deliberately cause confusion, with hidden political motives. Foreign media outlets have pointed out Taiwan's vaccine shortages, only to be ignored by the government. Another example that politics take precedence over pandemic prevention. Because of this, in Bloomberg’s latest international pandemic prevention rankings, Taiwan fell directly from among the top five to the 15th, lagging behind Mainland China and Japan.

The chairman urges President Tsai as well as senior DPP officials to attach more importance to human lives asthe situation on the ground is urgent. Since the CECC has already permitted local governments to purchase vaccines from abroad, either the local governments or the private sector should be allowed to use their respective channels to help the people of Taiwan find effective and safe vaccines. In particular, most people in Taiwan prefer international COVAX-certified vaccines, including Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, and AZ, so these vaccines should all be considered as priority procurement targets. Vaccines are not only relevant to the lives of the people, but also to whether the medical system can maintain smooth operations, or whether people can return to normal life. 

The KMT calls on the government to actively assist and contact local governments that are willing to find channels to procure internationally certified vaccines. The Kuomintang will do its part to strive for adequate, safe, and effective vaccines for the people while working with the people as well as governments at all levels to contain the pandemic as soon as possible. Furthermore, the Kuomintang has established the "Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-cognition Warfare Center" and the "Epidemic Prevention Response Team", and formed the "Anti-pandemic Alliance" with the chiefs of 14 ruling counties and cities to deal with the increasingly chaotic situation under the pandemic. The chairman also once again calls on President Tsai to put aside political calculation and let everyone go hand in hand to rebuild Taiwan's image as a role model in international pandemic prevention.

In addition, with regard to party affairs, the chairman said that how to do party affairs well and complete the democratic procedures within the party is an important challenge for the KMT under the pandemic. Many Central Standing Committee members have proposed to postpone the registration of candidacy for party positions. In addition to expressing his approval for such proposals, Chairman Chiang believes that as the pandemic has become more severe, the opposition parties need to concentrate their efforts on supervising the government as he is more concerned about what the Kuomintang can do for Taiwan. In particular, the government’s grave dereliction of duty directly exposes many hidden contradictions with Taiwan’s society, including the widening gap between the haves and the have nots, the difficulties of the grassroots in society, and the problems faced by various sectors of the labor force. In this regard, the Kuomintang has the obligation to pay attention to and propose solutions.

Finally, Chairman Chiang borrowed the late anti-Japanese colonial-rule activist Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) famous quote in conclusion, saying, "Unity is our only weapon." He emphasized that the Kuomintang must continue to advance in the right direction in reform under the predicament of the pandemic. This allows the people to see the progress and innovation of the Kuomintang. 

（This is an abridged version of an official KMT Chinese language press release）