China furthers its vaccines to profit from the pandemic
The world is in a race for vaccines to fight the Coronavirus pandemic engineered by China. Till April this year, India launched its ‘Vaccine Maitri’ drive, under which New Delhi provided 64.5 million doses of vaccines to 85 countries. However, with the advent of the second wave of the pandemic, India had to halt the deliveries from April onwards. Taking advantage of this situation, China furthered its ‘vaccine diplomacy’.
China is never known for quality. However, to open up economies and end the Corona crisis, several countries unwillingly opted for Chinese vaccines. But now, the Chinese vaccines are proving worthless as they fail big time to halt the pandemic.
The New York Times recently published an article in which they highlighted how countries like Seychelles, Chile, Bahrain and Mongolia, who preferred to go with the Chinese jabs, face renewed worst Covid outbreaks.
Likewise, hundreds of doctors and healthcare workers in Indonesia got infected with Coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated with Chinese Sinovac. Although this appears like some conspiracy theory, it is not, as the Indonesian Medical Association reported the fact.
Further, Kenneth Mak, the Director of Medical Services of Singapore’s Ministry of Health, has noted ‘significant’ problems linked to China’s Sinovac vaccine. Besides, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi cited the example of Chile for calling the Chinese vaccines’ inadequate’ and highly unsuitable for protecting people from China’s Covid. Earlier, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had criticized Chinese jabs and cast doubts over their efficacy. Nepal, too had echoed similar lines. ASEAN also (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) has largely ignored the Chinese shots.
In addition to being sub-standard, China has used its vaccines like diplomatic currency. For example, China forced Turkey to sign an extradition treaty and trade Uyghurs for vaccines. Also, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu exposed how China blackmailed Paraguay to end ties with Taiwan in return for millions of Chinese vaccines. India sent its jabs and saved Paraguay from falling into the Chinese vaccine trap.
China’s vaccine diplomacy has reached worldwide. The situation is like the ‘problem-solution-problem theory’ where a party creates a problem and then finds a solution to it, leading to another problem. Opportunist China is using this so-called ‘Health Silk Road’ to profit from the pandemic. However, considering the ineffectiveness of its vaccines and predatory vaccine policy similar to its debt traps, this ploy of the Chinese Communist Party appears certain to get exposed and fail.