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About That Chinese COVID-19 Vaccine…

by Eric Olander
A screen shows a coronavirus vaccine at a press conference during a media tour of a new factory built to produce a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at Sinovac, one of 11 Chinese companies approved to carry out clinical trials of potential coronavirus vaccines, in Beijing on September 24, 2020. WANG ZHAO / AFP

Chinese officials from Xi Jinping down have been clear about their intention to make any future COVID-19 vaccine available to Africa and other developing regions. “China will make its COVID-19 vaccine a global public good when it is ready for application after successful research and clinical trials,” said the official Xinhua news agency echoing the sentiments expressed by the President during his May 18 speech to the World Health Assembly when he first made that same assurance.

Ambassadors, embassies, and China’s propaganda outlets in Africa have been hammering the same message over and over, setting the expectation that Beijing would provide a vaccine to African countries in much the same it has with its PPE donations over the past six months: free of charge.

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