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The Rapidly Changing Vaccine Distribution Dynamics: Asia to Get Millions of Jabs While Supplies in Africa Run Low

by Eric Olander
The Special ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Celebration of the 30th Anniversary of Dialogue Relations is held in Chongqing, southwest China, June 7, 2021. Image via Xinhua.

The politics of global vaccine distribution are intensifying as the world’s major democratic powers mobilize their own “vaccine diplomacy” initiatives in a bid to compete head-on with China for influence in strategically vital regions, particularly in Asia.

Both the U.S. and Japan broke what many perceived to be an informal embargo by China against shipping vaccines to Taiwan. Similarly, the Japanese government is now considering sending more than a million jabs to vaccine-deprived Vietnam.

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