US Sends Taiwan 2.5 Million Vaccine Doses, Tripling Pledge

Workers transport Moderna vaccines shipped from the United States, to Taiwan Air Cargo Terminal at the Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on June 20, 2021. Ann Wang/Reuters

TAIPEI, Taiwan—The United States sent 2.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan on Sunday, tripling an earlier pledge in a donation with both public health and geopolitical meaning.

The shipment arrived on a China Airlines cargo plane that had left Memphis the previous day. Health Minister Chen Shih-chung and Brent Christensen, the top U.S. official in Taiwan, were among those who welcomed the plane on the tarmac at the airport outside of the capital, Taipei.