Why is China’s vaccine rollout going slower than expected? Bloomberg suggests two reasons:
- Supply issues: “Government officials are…worried that there isn’t adequate supply of shots developed by domestic companies.”
- “Widespread hesitation” toward getting COVID-19 vaccine shots, for “reasons ranging from concern over the safety and level of protection promised by the local shots, to a lack of urgency, with the virus largely confined to winter flare-ups in parts of the north.”
The other reason: Vaccine diplomacy
While wealthy countries have been criticized for hoarding vaccines, China has actively committed to supplying vaccines to the developing world. Yesterday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said (English, Chinese) that China will provide “vaccine aid” to 53 countries, and China has either exported or will export vaccines to 22 countries. Some of these countries, such as Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos, and Equatorial Guinea, are reportedly receiving donated Chinese vaccine shipments this week.
After initially focusing its vaccine diplomacy on Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, Beijing has recently made vaccine overtures to even more regions:
- Central and Eastern Europe: Chinese leader Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 said today in a speech (English, Chinese) to a regional summit that China “stands ready for vaccine cooperation.”
- Africa: “A specially modified Ethiopian Airlines jet landed in Addis Ababa on [February 6] from Beijing marking the beginning of the new air bridge linking China and Africa to deliver millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines,” the China-Africa Project reports.
If China didn’t distribute vaccines overseas, as the Washington Post has noted, it would “produce just about enough doses by the year’s end to cover 70 percent of its 1.4 billion people.” Instead, that amount of shots might not be distributed in China for another year.