The BRICS group wrapped up its two-day leaders’ summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. The summit’s final communique is a 16,000-word doorstop that covers numerous issues from economics to education.
The communique avoids any direct mention of the United States, and references to “unilateralism” and other coded criticism are also relatively scarce. Rather, the communique keeps the focus on the BRICS’ vision of the strengthening and reform of the global multilateral system ...
Category: Vaccine
Chinese COVID Variant Shows Up in India, Raising Fears of Asia-Wide Wave
The COVID-19 mutation currently roiling China’s healthcare service could be showing up in India. Indian health authorities have increased the genome sequencing of new cases amid reports of four cases of the Omicron BF7 subvariant currently dominant in China, showing up in the Indian states of Gujarat and ...
COVID Wave Drives Chinese Consumers to Indian Generics
As the BF7 Omicron variant pushes China’s public health care system to its limits, the country is running out of antiviral medications like Pfizer’s Paxlovid. These shortages seem to be driving people to the black market, with consumers competing to order generic ...
China’s COVID Response Boosts Foreign Aid
China's donations of physical aid jumped by 40% last year to $1.3 billion. The bulk of these donations were in response to the COVID pandemic, including vaccines and food.
UAE’s Ambassador to China Meets With Sinopharm President to Discuss Future Cooperation
The UAE's ambassador to China, Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri, met with the President of Sinopharm, Liu Jinchen, at the embassy in Beijing this week to discuss how the two sides can enhance their current partnership. The Emirates has become a very important ...
Chinese Vaccines Shipments Around the World Plunge 97% Last Month and We Now Know Why
For much of last year, China was seemingly unstoppable in its drive to ship vaccines to developing countries around the world. Hundreds of millions of doses went to Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and then suddenly, beginning last fall, shipments came to a grinding halt. ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Does the Shanghai Outbreak Change China’s Image as a Global Public Health Leader?
By Hugo Jones and Lukas Fiala For nearly two years, China’s COVID strategy has been at the center of Beijing’s public health diplomacy, being regarded as uniquely successful at keeping case numbers close to zero. However, over the past few months, ...
For the First Time in a Really Long Time, a Chinese Vaccine Shipment Arrived in Africa
China's newly-arrived ambassador to Zambia, Du Xiaohui, led a handover ceremony this weekend for a shipment of 600,000 COVID-19 vaccines. This is the first large-scale delivery of COVID jabs to Africa from China in a very long following a massive plunge in distributions late last year. ...
COVID Vaccine Distributions in Africa Were Once a Contested Issue Between the U.S. and China… But Not Anymore
As U.S. donations of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa surge, China’s supply to the continent is slumping. Analysis from the Beijing-based consultancy Bridge shows that over the last three months, China’s global provision of vaccines has been hovering close to zero. This is despite a ...
Chinese COVID Vaccine Deliveries Around the World Have Essentially Stopped
China's once enormous global COVID vaccine distribution drive has effectively come to a halt this year, according to new data published by the public health consultancy Bridge Consulting in Beijing. It's not clear what prompted the sharp dropoff in vaccine deliveries, but it could ...
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Talks Debts Traps and Vaccines at Two Sessions
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi again dismissed the idea that Chinese projects are trapping Africa in debt, instead calling them ‘monuments of cooperation.’ Wang made the remarks on Monday at a press conference on the sidelines of the Two Sessions meeting ...
Is China’s One-Billion Vaccine Goal Realistic?
During his press conference at the Two Sessions on Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recommitted China to deliver one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa. While he didn’t specify a timeline, he did link it to Africa’s effort to vaccinate 60% of its population by ...
Did Vaccine Diplomacy Sway Africa’s Ukraine Vote?
Amid the global discussion about why 35 Global South countries avoided censuring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations, Michael Bociurkiw, a senior non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, felt the need to tweet. He pointed out that some of the ...