Since January 2021, China has been providing Covid vaccines free of charge to nearly 53 poor countries and poor governments around the world.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin (pic) noted that China was the first country pledging to make vaccines a global public good.
These poor governments do not need to pay a single cent for the Chinese vaccines, except the shipping and transports.
To sell its vaccines worldwide and prove to the world that its vaccines are the best, China uses smart diplomacy and marketing strategies.
According to AP, China’s vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success.It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccines to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press.
China’s vaccine makers claim they are able to produce at least 2.6 billion doses this year.
On May 7, the World Health Organization (WHO) had granted emergency approval for a Covid vaccine made by Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm.
Sinopharm, which is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country, has already been given to millions of people in China and elsewhere, according to BBC.
WHO announced on May 7, it had validated the “safety, efficacy and quality” of the Sinopharm jab developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products.
Health Regulators in various poor countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia have approved Chinese jabs for emergency use.
China has also pledged to make Indonesia, South-east Asia’s most populous country, the regional hub for the production and distributions of its Sinovac vaccine.
Chinese Foreign Minister Mr Wang Yi said China “is prepared to continue (the vaccine) production cooperation with Indonesia… and will support Indonesia to become a regional production hub of vaccines”.
“China and Indonesia will work together to defeat this virus, ” he said in a joint press briefing with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Jakarta (on 14 Jan 2021).
Turkey, which received the China’s Sinovac jabs too, said that the vaccine is “significantly effective” after analyzing results from the inoculation of more than 7.5 million people.
On April 12, Malaysia announced it had purchased millions of doses of the Sinovac vaccine and it will give it to people aged 60 and above under Phase 2 Phase of Malaysia’s national COVID-19 immunisation programme starting on Apr 19.
It is not clear whether Malaysia has already received this vaccine or not yet.
Yesterday (May 19), the Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the Sinovac vaccine supply is still pending.
-Malaysia World News
