Mainland slams Taiwan's DPP for vaccine-related lies

BEIJING - Telling lies will not help relieve Taiwan people's concerns about the COVID-19 outbreak, nor will lies exempt the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority from the blame for ignoring people's health and safety, a mainland spokesperson said on Monday.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks when responding to groundless accusations saying the mainland attempted to obstruct Japan's vaccine assistance to Taiwan.

The DPP authority told lies about the mainland preventing Taiwan from receiving vaccines, Ma said, adding that the authority also prevented Taiwan people from obtaining vaccines from the mainland.

However, such lies will not cover up the fact that the island has an extreme vaccine shortage, nor will they whitewash loopholes in the island's epidemic prevention measures or ease the epidemic situation, Ma said.

Increasing infections have occurred on the island since mid-May.

"From the very beginning of the recent COVID-19 outbreak on the island, we expressed our willingness to offer safe and effective vaccines," said Ma. "We are deeply concerned about the health of Taiwan people."