Infection upsurge reveals true colors of dishonest DPP

Since the new wave of novel coronavirus infections hit Taiwan last month, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party has neither built makeshift hospitals nor locked down cities to contain the spread of the virus and save lives. Worse, the DPP has prioritized its political agenda over people's lives and, ignoring Taiwan compatriots' wish, rebuffed the Chinese mainland's offer of providing multiple domestically developed vaccines approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use.

Despite the novel coronavirus continuing to spread on the island, the DPP has not taken any concrete prevention and control measures or removed any officials responsible for the new wave of infections. Instead, it has spent all its energy in shamelessly defending itself, by playing up the cross-Straits conflicts to shift the blame on others for its poor performance.

Rather than accepting the mainland's vaccines to save Taiwan residents' lives, the DPP is busy currying favor from the United States, including arranging for high-level US officials' visit to the island, making efforts to boost trade, and seeking vaccines.

Although the island has finally received 2.5 million Moderna vaccine doses, it could have got a lot more vaccines from the mainland which, contrary to smears of the DPP, are effective and safe had it accepted the mainland's repeated offers since the latest upsurge in local infections.

First, the pandemic has exposed the DPP for what it really is: a cold-blooded party that only hankers for power and cares less about people's lives. Since the fresh outbreak, the rate of infection and mortality have been soaring, exceeding the global average. But the DPP refuses to reflect on its failures or plug the loopholes in its anti-pandemic measures.

The DPP stooped to a new low when it said the people who have fallen victim to the virus were mostly aged and suffering from co-morbidity, such as chronic diseases, indicating that they deserved to die and it should not be held responsible for their deaths. The DPP's indifference to the rising number of infections and deaths has come in for severe criticism.

Second, COVID-19 has blown the façade off the DPP, proving it is incapable of governing the island. The pandemic is a natural disaster, but the DPP's failure to contain it is a man-made calamity. The DPP authorities have refused to take many of the tried and tested measures to contain the spread of the virus, including increasing testing and tracing, locking down "hot zones" and rolling out mass vaccination campaigns.

The Taiwan authorities have even banned the island's counties, nongovernmental organizations and enterprises from importing vaccines on their own and inoculating residents to save them from COVID-19, proving that it is only interested in holding on to power, even at the cost of people's lives.

Third, the pandemic had brought out the worst in the DPP, which has mastered the art of leveraging political issues for achieving its narrow goals. After taking office in 2016, the DPP took advantage of cross-Straits tensions to win a second term, and has been using the same trick to further alienate the island from the mainland even since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

Even though the latest wave of infections has intensified, the DPP has refused the mainland's sincere offer of vaccines, claiming that Beijing has malicious intentions behind the offer. By creating an imaginary enemy in the form of Beijing, the DPP administration is trying to further isolate the island so it could peddle its political agenda of "Taiwan independence". Perhaps the DPP is afraid that after the island's residents are inoculated with mainland vaccines, they may forge closer bonds with the mainland.

The DPP has always accorded priority to consolidation of power over Taiwan compatriots' interests. It agreed to import US pork with ractopamine, a feed additive to promote leanness and increase food conversion efficiency in livestock, and open the island's market to Japanese food suspected of being contaminated with nuclear radiation at the cost of Taiwan residents' health to please the two countries in exchange for their support.

The new upsurge in infections on the island has thoroughly exposed the incompetent and selfish DPP authorities, making it impossible for them to hide the truth and fool the people any more.

The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

The author is a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies, Beijing Union University.