At the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Senegal, Chinese leader Xi Jinping unveiled nine initiatives to help Africa combat COVID-19 and spark economic growth. A pledge to donate 600 million vaccine doses and produce an additional 400 million locally caught the most attention.
China’s reach and influence in the Middle East and North Africa continue to grow.
China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held a meeting to mark 30 years of formal ties, and appeared to smooth over tense spots in relations — with the help of Chinese vaccine aid, which has focused on Southeast Asia.
In other Chinese vaccine news, Sinovac Biotech becomes the second China-based company to win WHO approval for its shot, and Chinese vaccine makers promise even greater supply for developing countries.
True to form for the world’s most populous nation, China is now administering eye-popping numbers of COVID-19 vaccinations. In a span of nine days, 100 million people in China recently received a shot.
Gao Fu, the director of China’s CDC, suggested mixing vaccines, adding doses, and looking into mRNA technology to improve the efficacy of COVID-19 shots. He later insisted that he wasn’t “admitting” to a low effectiveness of Chinese vaccines.
With five approved COVID-19 vaccines, China aims to give shots to 40% of its population in the next four months, while also delivering huge amounts of doses to Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico.
On the same day that U.S. regulators cleared the way for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to become the country's third approved COVID-19 shot, two more Chinese companies applied for public rollouts of their vaccines in China.
Chinese vaccines against COVID-19 are providing low- and middle-income countries with solutions in a time of need. They have helped fill a void left by Europe and the U.S.
China is millions of doses behind the U.S. in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, and officials are reportedly pushing back their timeline for the first 50 million shots. Vaccine diplomacy abroad, and vaccine hesitancy at home, are slowing China’s domestic rollout.