Video features prayers for Taiwan

As the COVID-19 epidemic situation in Taiwan worsens, dozens of Taiwan residents living on the Chinese mainland shot a video in which they prayed for the health of their families on the island and called on the Taiwan authorities to stop political manipulation of epidemic prevention efforts.

About 80 Taiwan residents in 17 provincial-level regions appeared in the video, saying "You are safe and we are at ease. The two sides of the Straits should join hands and fight the epidemic side by side".

The video clips they shot were put together and posted online on Tuesday.

One of them, Cheng Po-yu, executive director of the Cross-Straits Youth Exchange Association in Beijing, said many young Taiwan people working or studying on the mainland are worried about their relatives and friends in Taiwan and the epidemic situation when they look at the number of new cases in Taiwan each day.

"My parents live in New Taipei City, and someone in their community has been diagnosed. I am nervous and talk to my parents on the phone every day," Cheng said.

At the end of last month, when the epidemic in Taiwan was becoming serious, Cheng and several other Taiwan residents on the mainland came up with the idea of making a video featuring the slogan.

"People were so willing to get involved that when I pitched the idea on social media, within a minute someone had sent a video to me," he said. "What touched me was that everyone designed their own movements while shooting the video."

Cheng said the youngest person in the video is a baby of a cross-Straits marriage and the oldest is about 50 years old.

Since the new outbreak began last month, Taiwan has recorded more than 100 newly confirmed cases a day for about 25 consecutive days. It reported 274 new cases and 25 deaths on Wednesday.

The island media reported that many Taiwan people have flown to the mainland recently to get vaccinations after making appointments with the mainland authorities. Taiwan singer Hsiao Ching-teng and Yok Mu-ming, former president of the pro-unification New Party of Taiwan, received vaccine doses in Shanghai recently.

Cheng said, "Many people around me are considering asking their family members to get vaccinated in the mainland."

Taiwan has been struggling with a shortage of vaccines, with just 1 percent of its 23 million people vaccinated.

The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said earlier that the mainland was willing to arrange the prompt purchase of vaccines and send epidemic prevention and control experts to Taiwan. Some mainland organizations also expressed their willingness to donate vaccines to Taiwan.

The Democratic Progressive Party authorities in Taiwan refused the mainland offers and claimed the mainland had blocked Taiwan from buying overseas vaccines.

"The island authorities rejected mainland vaccines for political reasons," Cheng said, adding that they should attach importance to scientific epidemic prevention and stop deliberately blocking the purchase of mainland vaccines.

Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang said on Wednesday that the mainland has made the utmost efforts to help Taiwan compatriots fight the epidemic.

It was the DPP that ignored the health of Taiwan residents and slandered the mainland's efforts to help Taiwan compatriots, which exposed its secessionist nature, he said.

"The DPP should shoulder all the blame for the cross-Straits status quo," he said.

zhangyi1@chinadaily.com.cn