The Chinese government is preparing to send medical personnel to South Sudan and Uganda in a bid to contain the spread of the Ebola virus that is currently ravaging parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Since the Chinese only deploy these kinds of personnel at the invitation of the local government, Beijing is still waiting for permission from Kinshasa before the Chinese teams can leave for the DRC.
Back in 2014, China was a major player in the battle to contain what was then an unprecedented Ebola. Then, Beijing spent $123 million on humanitarian assistance to fight the disease and sent more than a thousand medical personnel into the infected regions, according to reseacher Huang Yanzhong from Seton Hall University in the United States.
The 2014 campaign was a notable effort on the part of the Chinese as they had never mounted a humanitarian operation on this scale, particularly one as far away as West Africa.
