時論廣場》波蘭捐贈臺灣疫苗的背後（方恩格Ross Darrell Feingold）

波蘭政府捐贈臺灣的40萬劑AZ疫苗，5日清晨由長榮航空公司BR66航班自維也納運抵桃園機場，海關完成機邊驗放作業後，地勤人員上前將貨物消毒，隨後送往指定冷儲物流中心存放，進行後續檢驗封緘作業後再供計劃所列實施對象接種。（陳麒全攝）

波蘭近日捐贈臺灣40萬劑AZ疫苗，臺灣政府立即公開表示感謝波蘭政府、強調波蘭此舉是民主自由價值之下互助與共患難的展現。在這之前美國、日本等國向臺灣捐贈疫苗時，臺灣政府也做出了類似的反應。許多臺灣民衆也在社羣媒體上大力稱讚這些疫苗捐贈國，認爲這是臺灣民主新價值被國際認可的證明。

殊不知美國、日本除了捐贈疫苗給臺灣之外，同時也在世界各國間大量捐贈疫苗，而這些疫苗受贈國之中有許多國家並非民主國家，換言之，這些疫苗捐贈的動作，並非都是基於民主信念，雖然臺灣人普遍對於民主價值朗朗上口，但在國際情境下與事實相違。

放眼國際間其他的疫苗受贈國，多是貧困、無法取得疫苗的國家。然而臺灣醫療先進且富裕，列在受贈國之中顯得格格不入。臺灣政府一方面想要擺脫「疫苗乞丐」的名聲，一方面又大力歡慶他國政府的疫苗捐贈，是否有些矛盾？

就在波蘭宣佈將捐贈臺灣疫苗的同一天，蘇貞昌院長宣佈了政府將在屏東建棒球場、雙語學校等文化建設。疫情當前，筆者不免對於臺灣政府在政策上的優先排序感到質疑。只能合理推測現在在地方上進行文化建設，或許是希望將民衆的焦點逐漸從疫情轉移至明年的地方選舉上。此外，政府大力向世界各國要疫苗之舉，或也可彌補其在疫情爆發之時未能及時採購足量疫苗的缺失。

若臺灣真的正視國際間疫苗捐贈的形象價值，在目前臺灣疫情控制良好的情況之下，臺灣忙着歡慶受贈疫苗是外交上的大成就的同時，更可以考慮與捐贈國合作，一同署名將原本要捐贈給臺灣的疫苗進一步轉送至更需要的國家，這可以幫助臺灣在國際間獲得更大的美名。

此外，值得臺灣民衆關注的是目前波蘭的執政黨「法律與正義黨(PiS)」近年來對於民主、人權和法治的政策上，在國際間已惡名昭彰，以下簡單列舉：

2020 年，現任波蘭總統杜達(Andrzej Duda) 在當時的競選集會上表示，LGBT(同志文化)的意識形態比共產主義還更令人唾棄。同年，包括美國在內的50名駐波蘭大使和國際組織發出共同聲明，表示波蘭政府的歧視性政策是對於性別少數族羣與人權的威脅。然而在臺灣通過同婚、高呼人權勝利之時，臺灣的名字卻未出現在這些國際間的聯合聲明之中。

今年8月，波蘭衆議院(Sejm)通過了對媒體所有權法案的修改，迫使美國Discovery集團出售其在波蘭電視公司 「TVN」 的多數股權，其旗下新聞頻道 「TVN24」是少數僅存對波蘭政府持高度批評態度的當地媒體，有人稱此舉爲波蘭政府所做出的媒體清洗。美國國務卿布林肯（Antony Blinken）也對此發出強力譴責。

就在幾周前，波蘭衆議院通過「大屠殺及共產主義下受害者能索取他們過去被奪取的財產之權利」相關法規將不再適用。在各國努力進行轉型正義的同時，波蘭政府不顧美國和以色列的撻伐，開始倒行逆施，罔顧歷史事件下的受害者權益。

波蘭政府接二連三推出的爭議性政策，讓歐盟數次對其發出警告。其中對於波蘭政府幹預司法獨立性，歐盟表達嚴厲指責之外，就在波蘭宣佈向臺灣捐贈疫苗後的這幾天，歐盟對又波蘭政府發出了更具體的警告令，要求其不得繼續侵害當地LGBT者的人權，否則歐盟將要停止對波蘭當地政府所提供的1億2600多歐元援助。

在臺灣議題正受到美、歐關注的同時，波蘭選在這個時機點捐贈疫苗給臺灣似乎很合理，或許這能幫助波蘭政府在他們逐漸破敗的國際形象上加點分。但筆者不禁懷疑，站在臺灣的角度，執政的民進黨與波蘭的法律與正義黨在人權、自由民主等議題上價值觀明顯南轅北轍，爲何臺灣政府願意在此時幫助波蘭政府挽救他們的國際形象？

然而就在9月6日，波蘭與臺灣的疫苗情誼瞬間頓然無形。波蘭外交部長拉烏（Zbigniew Rau）在他訪問立陶宛時公開表示，波蘭並不承認臺灣獨立，並強調在波蘭所奉行的「一中政策」之下，他們始終視臺灣爲中國的一部分。

這無非讓臺灣學習到一課，無論臺灣在外交處境有多麼孤寂，君子慎所擇，交友須小心謹慎！

（作者爲美國共和黨海外部亞太區前主席）

全文：

Do DPP Values = PiS Values?

By Ross Darrell Feingold

Former Asia Chairman Republicans Abroad

The recent donation by Poland of 400000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses is accompanied once again by the Taiwan’s government references to partners in democracy and freedom assisting each other. Such statements by the Taiwan government accompanied the United States Japan and other vaccine donations even though vaccine donors have donated vaccines to countries worldwide with many of these recipients not democracies. Clearly whether or not a donor recipient country is a democracy or not is not a main motivation for vaccine donations.

First it is important to re-iterate this author’s previous public statements that a wealthy country like Taiwan does not need to accept vaccine donations because it gives the international community the impression that the Taiwan government is a vaccine beggar which lacks money to purchase vaccines. In fact on the same day that Poland’s vaccine donation was announced Premier Su Chen-chang announced government support to build an unnecessary baseball stadium in Pingtung among other recently announced unnecessary projects that have more to do with obtaining voter support in the 2022 local election than actual need. Perhaps the government’s strategy is to obtain vaccine donations so as to divert attention from its own failures to timely procure vaccines while focusing voter attention on the 2022 elections.

Second if Taiwan wants to maximize the global public relations value of vaccine donations rather than tell only a domestic audience that Taiwan has achieved a foreign relations success Taiwan would gain far more international attention if in conjunction with the donor country the vaccines were further donated to a country that is in greater need than Taiwan (with its relatively small number of COVID-19 cases) for vaccines.

Of greater concern about Taiwan accepting Poland’s donation is that at the moment Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party’s recent democracy human rights and rule of law record is a concern. During a campaign rally in 2020 Polish President Andrzej Duda told supporters that LGBTQ “ideology” is worse than communism. Later in 2020 50 ambassadors and representatives of international organizations in Poland including the United States expressed their support for “efforts to raise public awareness of the issues affecting the lesbian gay bisexual transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community and other communities in Poland facing similar challenges”. A similar letter was in 2021. Taiwan’s representative office in Poland did not sign either letter. In August the lower house of Poland’s parliament passed changes to the media ownership law that would force US group Discovery to sell its majority stake in TVN one of Poland's biggest private TV networks whose news channel TVN24 is often highly critical of Poland’s government. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement calling the media law “troubling”. Also in August despite criticism from the United States and Israel the Polish parliament amended an existing law on restitution claims which would prevent descendants of Holocaust victims or Communist Poland’s victims from seeking restitution. Later in August the Polish government attempted to avoid European Union threats of sanctions due to the Polish government’s interference in judicial independence.

It appears that Poland’s vaccine donations to Taiwan were timed to help address Poland’s international image. One wonders why Taiwan decided to assist Poland in this effort especially as the values of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party appear to be quite different than the values of PiS.

The Polish attempt to use the vaccine donations to Taiwan might not be working though. Days after the Polish donation to Taiwan was announced on 6 September 2021 the European Union threatened to block 126 million euros of aid to local Polish governments over concerns about LGBTQ rights.

Earlier this week Poland’s foreign minister Zbigniew Rau during a visit to Lithuania reportedly said Poland does not recognize Taiwan’s independence and that under Poland’s One China policy Taiwan is a part of China.

This is all a good reminder for Taiwan that despite its diplomatic challenges it must be prudent when selecting friends.