Billionaire wants to buy vaccine for Taiwan

Taiwan has been trying in vain to get Biontech vaccine for some time. Now the Foxconn billionaire Terry Gou wants to buy five million doses of the vaccine from Biontech for Taiwan due to the increasing number of cases. An application has been made and is being examined by the Taiwanese government, said Health Minister Chen Shih-chung. Gou is the founder of Apple supplier Foxconn, one of the world's largest manufacturers of electronic parts. He hoped to be able to transport the cans from Germany to Taiwan without intermediaries, Gou said. At the same time, according to a diplomat, Germany is mediating in renewed talks between Taiwan and the German biotech company Biontech. The German government and in particular Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier have made great efforts, writes the de facto ambassador to Taiwan, Thomas Prinz, on Facebook. Whether it comes to a contract depends on Taiwan and Biontech. Most recently, Taipei Berlin proposed a deal: Taiwan could supply the currently scarce computer chips if the state received Biontech cans for them. Taiwan is home to the world's largest contract chip manufacturer and one of Germany's main suppliers. In January, Minister of Economic Affairs Altmaier asked Taiwan for help in view of acute delivery bottlenecks in computer chips for the automotive industry and emphasized the importance of the Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC as a central supplier to German carmakers. The previous negotiations between Taiwan and the vaccine manufacturer Biontech failed, according to the Taiwanese government, under pressure from China, which the People's Republic has rejected. The conflict between Taiwan and the People's Republic, which Taiwan regards as part of their territory, has been simmering for a long time. Like many other countries, Germany has no formal relations with Taiwan. In spring 2020, the Chinese company Fosun Pharma concluded a license agreement with Biontech to develop and market the German company's Covid-19 vaccine in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. However, Taiwan only wants to negotiate directly with Biontech and does not trust the vaccines from China. According to China, the Taiwanese government has broken commercial principles by trying to bypass Fosun and negotiate directly with the German vaccine maker. Previously, Taiwan received vaccine doses from Astrazeneca through the Covax global vaccine exchange program for poorer countries. Taiwan has so far vaccinated less than 2 percent of its 23.5 million citizens. However, it has ordered a total of around 30 million cans from manufacturers Astrazeneca, Moderna and two local companies.