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One million doses of Chinese vaccines arrived over the weekend in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, where containers filled with the shipment were photographed and prominently featured on the prime minister’s Facebook page.
Similar shipments of Covid-19 shots landed in other capitals in Southeast and South Asia. Last week it was Manila and Bangkok. Previous week, Kathmandu. Late last month, Jakarta.
Chinese vaccines, through a combination of small donations and larger sales contracts, were a prominent part of deployments to developing countries across Asia in the first half of 2021. Millions of doses arrived as governments in the West focused on vaccinating their populations. And Covax, a WHO-supported program to immunize the world, has failed to achieve its goals.
Developed economies – which have bought large quantities of vaccines – are now pledging to help countries that lack resources. G7 leaders said on Sunday they would share at least 870 million doses directly over the next year. But in the past six months, the delivery of Chinese shots, even if they often arrive in small batches, has helped many governments push their vaccination campaigns forward — and given Beijing an opportunity to strengthen ties.
People queued to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in Kathmandu, June 8. Photo: prakash mathema/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Indonesia relies heavily on shots made by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd. , which represents 89% of the 95 million doses it has received so far. Cambodia has largely used two Chinese-made vaccines to achieve one of the highest levels of immunization in the region, with 18% of its population at least partially vaccinated. After a slow start, the Philippines expects to increase vaccinations by about 10 million doses arriving this month, more than half of which will be Chinese.
“It definitely left the impression that when things were tough, the Chinese stepped up,” said Ivan Laksmana, a senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia. He said residents of the region will remember “how quickly China shut down, got its own problems under control and introduced vaccines.”
Chinese vaccines have also filled part of the void in South Asia, where countries have been relying on AstraZeneca PLC shots manufactured in India. The severe surge of Covid-19 in India has disrupted those supplies.
“He definitely made the impression that when things were tough, the Chinese stepped up.” ”
– Ivan Laksmana, Center for Strategic and International Studies in Indonesia
Nepal is using 1.8 million doses of a vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm to vaccinate people over 60. The donation is far less than what the country of 30 million people needs, but it is filling a gap in the near term by helping to vaccinate at least one age group, said Dr. Krishna Pudel, a spokesman for the Nepali Ministry of Health. “Something is better than nothing,” he said, “that’s how we look at it.”
Sri Lanka has agreed to buy 14 million Sinopharma doses, and Bangladesh is in talks to buy 15 million doses from the company.
Vaccine shipments were accompanied by active diplomacy. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi traveled to Southeast Asia in January, hosted four foreign ministers from the region for one-on-one talks in China in late March and early April, and met with all the region’s foreign ministers in the Chinese city of Chongqing. For talks last week, with vaccines high on the agenda. In late April, Mr. Wang held a video conference with his counterparts from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In a meeting this month with a senior Indonesian official, Mr. Wang noted that a handful of developed countries had stockpiled vaccines and said China would jointly produce vaccines with developing countries.
Chinese Covid-19 vaccines offer relatively low levels of protection compared to some of their foreign competitors. This is why China joins other countries in considering mixing and matching vaccines as a key to overcoming multiple vaccination challenges simultaneously. Illustration: Ksenia Shekhutdinova
“There was a bit of momentum on the diplomatic side of things,” Mr. Laxmana said. “If China is really committed to long-term research and production cooperation with regional countries, it will keep the region longer in the relationship,” he said of Southeast Asia.
China in recent years has expanded its strategic and economic weight in the region, intensifying competition with the United States, but it is also engaged in disputes with its neighbors, including in the South China Sea. In a survey published in February by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, more than three-quarters of 1,032 policy makers and opinion leaders surveyed across the region said they see China as the most influential economic power in the region. When asked whether Southeast Asian countries should side with the US or China if forced to choose, 61.5% chose the US
Beijing is vying for influence in South Asia as well with regional rival India, through a mix of aid, loans and infrastructure investment. Days before the first batch of vaccines arrived in Bangladesh in mid-May, the Chinese ambassador warned the country against cooperating with the Quartet Security Dialogue, a grouping formed between the United States, Australia, India and Japan, in part to counter China’s regional influence. .
The warning sparked a rebuke from Dhaka. We are an independent and sovereign country. “We are the ones who decide our foreign policy,” Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said.
Asked whether China is using vaccines to gain political influence and encourage countries to buy, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the country is trying to ensure a stable and diversified supply of vaccines in the developing world.
A health worker brings a vial of Sinovac vaccine inside a movie theater converted into a vaccination center in Taguig City, Philippines, June 14. Photo: Ted Algibi/AFP/Getty Images
India, one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers, was expected to play a large role in countering Chinese vaccine diplomacy. His efforts were initially successful, with India sending more than 66 million doses abroad, before a wave of Covid-19 halted deliveries. Exports are expected to resume by the end of the year.
Only a few vaccines made by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc. To South Asia and Southeast Asia, except for more affluent places like Singapore. Vaccine doses developed in the West are expected to be in greater numbers in the second half of the year.
The efficacy of Chinese vaccines has been the subject of debate in some countries. Results from clinical trials of Sinovac’s dose vary widely and include a Brazilian study that found the vaccine to be 50.38% effective against symptomatic infections – enough to meet the World Health Organization’s standard of 50%. A clinical trial in Indonesia showed the vaccine to be 65.3% effective.
People wait to receive a dose of the Sinovac vaccine in Bangkok, June 14. Photo: Sakchai Lalit / Associated Press
Sinopharm said its vaccine is 79% effective in preventing symptomatic cases. The UAE has started giving a third booster dose to some residents after doctors said the Sinopharm vaccine did not produce enough protective antibodies in some cases. Singapore has not approved Chinese vaccines, and Vietnam, where suspicions about Beijing’s existence are high, has not provided Chinese-made vaccines.
The World Health Organization has approved Chinese vaccines for emergency use.
– John Emont from Singapore and Krishna Pokharel from Kathmandu contributed to this article.
Write to Niharika Mandhana at [email protected] and Sha Hua at [email protected]
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