Acclaimed China-Africa scholar and University of London professor Stephen Chan pushed back on the narrative that China alone is using vaccines to gain political advantage in its foreign policy. “To be fair, everyone’s playing this game of vaccine diplomacy,” he said on the latest episode of the China Institute podcast produced by the School of Oriental and African Studies.

“The Western powers, for instance, have offered Asia-Pacific nations a great number of vaccines but have offered none to Africa at all, so there the Chinese are filling a vacuum,” he explained. “Their diplomacy has stepped in where our diplomacy has not,” he said in reference to China’s decision to donate/sell vaccines abroad.