China positions itself for ‘vaccine diplomacy’ push to fight Covid-19

‘Beijing is offering loans and priority access to developing countries for vaccinations as they move to large-scale trials. As richer nations scramble for early doses manufacturing constraints likely to cause shortages for years...

‘Vaccines being developed in China are among front-runners in the hunt for safe and effective immunisations to counter the pandemic. China’s diplomats are saying, if successful, the vaccines will be a “global public good”, a pledge made by President Xi Jinping at a meeting of the World Health Organisation’s governing body in May. The assurances come as multiple vaccines worldwide move into large-scale late-phase trials, a step away from potential approval. However, supply shortages for any approved products are likely to persist for months or even years due to manufacturing constraints.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, August 4, 2020)

EU leaders reach recovery deal after marathon summit

‘Tempers were often frayed during the negotiations. The "frugal four", Sweden, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands, along with Finland had opposed extending €500bn in grants. The group originally set €375bn as the limit. Other members, such as Spain and Italy, did not want to go below €400bn. At one point French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly banged his fists on the table, as he told the "frugal four" they were putting the European project in danger...

‘Another issue was over linking aid to the "rule of law". Hungary and Poland both threatened to veto the package if it adopted a policy of withholding funds from nations deemed to fall short of democratic principles.’

Read here (BBC, July 21, 2020)

China and Kazakhstan try to smooth over ‘deadly pneumonia’ row

‘Chinese ambassador reaffirms ties in phone call to Kazakh health minister. WHO says many cases in the Central Asian nation were likely Covid-19 but just not diagnosed correctly.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, July 11, 2020)

Coronavirus: China’s belt and road partners call for more cooperation on public health

‘Senior officials from 25 nations involved with China’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative have issued a joint statement calling for great cooperation on public health as the world continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic. Ensuring fair access to health products and services should be the world’s top priority, the minister-level officials said in a communique released by China’s foreign ministry on Friday following an international videoconference. They also called for greater investment in “sound and resilient” health infrastructure – including the construction of regional storage centres for medical supplies – and committed to improving the availability and affordability of “products of reliable quality”, especially vaccines, drugs and other essential items.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, June 20, 2020)

‘Fighting Covid-19: China in action’

China's State Council Information Office published on June 7, 2020, a 65-page white paper to ‘keep a record of China’s efforts in its own fight against the virus, to share its experience with the rest of the world, and to clarify its ideas on the global battle.’

Read here (XinHua, June 7, 2020)

Trump said he would terminate the US relationship with the WHO. Here's what that means

‘The impacts wouldn’t be felt just abroad. Were the U.S. to leave the WHO, scientists and public health officials in the states would suddenly find themselves cut off from some of the most important global health communication channels. You don’t need to look too far into the past to see how this might play out: In the early days of COVID-19, “not all of the data from China was public. It was shared among the WHO member states initially before it was put out in public bulletins,” says Amanda Glassman, executive vice president of the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank, That information, in theory, should have enabled U.S. health infrastructure to rapidly spring into action, and take steps to mitigate the worst viral outcomes. It didn’t of course, but that failure can hardly be pinned on the WHO.’

Read here (Time Magazine, June 4, 2020)

Coronavirus: Why is the US making such a mess of it? Should we be concerned

‘Should the rest of the world be concerned that America is lurching towards a monumental health disaster? Yes, for three reasons... First, the world is so interconnected today that no part of the world can be safe if the epidemic is not brought under control everywhere... Second... the huge negative impact of a poorly controlled epidemic on the US economy will depress global aggregate demand for the rest of 2020 and prolong and deepen the recession that is unfolding... Third, a wounded tiger is most dangerous, especially when it has the largest military force on the planet...’

Read here (Aliran, May 26, 2020)

China must raise its soft power game, especially at a time Trump’s America is losing friends

‘Research published last week comparing American and German views on China, globalisation and international cooperation showed surprising differences: the number of Germans valuing close relations with the United States tumbled between 2019 and 2020 from 50 per cent to 37 per cent, an obvious casualty of the quixotic aggression of an “America first” White House. At the same time, Germans valuing close relations with China climbed from a meagre 24 per cent to 36 per cent – now equal to those valuing close links with the US. Are we seeing a shift in soft power?’

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 24, 2020)

As the US and China clash, what can other countries do?

Keypoints: Neighbours and partners must work to rebuild cross-border trade and boost supply chains as a leadership gap widens during the coronavirus pandemic. Lessons can be drawn from the efforts of Asian countries, which signed their own FTAs as a backup plan to global trade when WTO negotiations stalled at the start of the 2000s.

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 21, 2020)

The West has lost its way, but China may not be the beneficiary, says historian Wang Gungwu

‘It did not help that the US as the leader of that West has made serious mistakes as the world’s sole superpower, including that of letting rampant capitalism dictate the globalisation process. The negative reaction among those in the US who turned against its liberal ideals has left the country’s allies in confusion and thus opened Western hegemony to question. But even if the West should be in relative decline, that does not mean that China will be the beneficiary. Much will depend on whether China’s alternative perspective is credible and attractive to those who are now more sceptical of what the West stands for.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 21, 2020)

Fighting Covid-19 through solidarity and cooperation building a global community of health for all

In his statement at the virtual opening of the 73rd World Health Assembly, Xi Jinping, China's president, announced the following:

— China will provide US$2 billion over two years to help with COVID-19 response and with economic and social development in affected countries, especially developing countries.

— China will work with the UN to set up a global humanitarian response depot and hub in China, ensure the operation of anti-epidemic supply chains and foster “green corridors” for fast-track transportation and customs clearance.   

— China will establish a cooperation mechanism for its hospitals to pair up with 30 African hospitals and accelerate the building of the Africa CDC headquarters to help the continent ramp up its disease preparedness and control capacity.

— COVID-19 vaccine development and deployment in China, when available, will be made a global public good. This will be China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.

— China will work with other G20 members to implement the Debt Service Suspension Initiative for the poorest countries. China is also ready to work with the international community to bolster support for the hardest-hit countries under the greatest strain of debt service, so that they could tide over the current difficulties.

Read full speech here (Global Times, May 18, 2020)

World Health Assembly: what is it, and what is the coronavirus inquiry proposal?

‘A key conference paper, already filed ahead of the assembly, and supported by 122 countries, including the members of the European Union and the African Group, the UK, Russia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, calls for a systemic review of the world’s response to Covid-19. “Initiate, at the earliest appropriate moment, and in consultation with member states, a stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation ... to review experience gained and lessons learned from the WHO-coordinated international health response to Covid-19.”

‘The draft motion does not mention China or Wuhan (the city where the virus was first detected) by name. But it urges the global health community to: “... identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts, including through efforts such as scientific and collaborative field missions.”

And the paper argues the response to the pandemic must be global. The motion: “… calls for the universal, timely and equitable access to and fair distribution of all quality, safe, efficacious and affordable essential health technologies and products including their components and precursors required in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic as a global priority.”

Read here (The Guardian, May 18, 2020)

Download the 73rd WHA, Agenda Item 3, ‘Covid-19 response’ draft resolution here

China’s aggressive approach to coronavirus criticism ‘not working’

‘Observers call for Beijing to reflect on shortcomings of its engagement with the rest of the world as international sympathy fades. Mask diplomacy and bellicose statements need to go if global relations are to improve, they say.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 17, 2020)

There’s a hidden cost to coronavirus, and China is about to pay dearly

‘Covid-19 itself will not fundamentally reverse the fortunes of the Chinese economy but post-Covid geopolitics will. Beijing will find itself in a very different world, one dominated by an agenda of economic decoupling, disputes over the origin of the virus and compensation claims by the US and other countries.

‘As the US does not want to do business with China, its staunch allies, like Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, have all followed suit. The US, EU and Japan are all planning to lure their companies out of China.’

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 17, 2020)

China trying to divide and rule in Europe, EU foreign policy chief says

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has accused China of trying to exploit differences of opinion among the bloc’s 27 member states for its own ends, while promoting a unique version of multilateralism. Spaniard Josep Borrell’s comments came as President Xi Jinping said in a telephone conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday that China “firmly supports the United Nations and World Health Organisation in fighting the pandemic” and was “ready to work with all countries” to control Covid-19, according to a report by Xinhua.

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 16, 2020)

Too soon, too loud: Chinese foreign policy advisers tell ‘Wolf Warrior’ diplomats to tone it down

“The aim is to promote the Chinese political system as superior, and to project the image of China as a world leader in combating a global health crisis,” Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University of China, said during an online seminar arranged by the college on Friday.

“But the problem is, [these efforts] have failed to recognise the complexities that have emerged on the global stage during the pandemic, and they are being done too hastily, too soon and too loudly in tone, so there is a huge gap between what is intended and what is achieved,” he said.

Read here (South China Morning Post, May 14, 2020)

‘Dangerous, damaging’: China trade dispute triggers national division

‘Victoria and Queensland have warned the federal government to be more diplomatic in pursuit of a coronavirus inquiry, fearing that Australia's escalating trade dispute with China will harm already fragile state economies...

‘Australia-China Business Council chief executive Helen Sawczak said the inquiry had been politicised for domestic point scoring and warned more Australian industries to prepare for trade strikes if the government could not negotiate with China.’

Meanwhile... ‘Beijing is also pushing new beef and resources deals with Brazil and barley trade with Canada and eastern Europe. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro recently spoke with China's President Xi Jinping after China supplied medical equipment. The country is one of Australia's top rivals in the critical iron ore, coal and LNG sectors.’

Read here (Sydney Morning Herald, May 13, 2020)

China rolls out the Health Silk Road

 ‘In a graphic demonstration of soft power, so far China has offered Covid-19-related equipment and medical help to no fewer than 89 nations – and counting...

‘That covers Africa (especially South Africa, Namibia and Kenya, with Alibaba in fact announcing it will send help to all African nations); Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru); the arc from East Asia to Southwest Asia; and Europe...

‘Key recipients in Europe include Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Serbia and Poland. But Italy, most of all, is a very special case. Most are donations. Some are trade – like millions of masks sold to France (and the US)...

‘This Chinese soft power offensive is carefully calibrated to offset the current paralysis of global supply chains. China is now working overtime to supply many parts of the world with medicine and related healthcare items – always with the Belt and Road framework in mind, as if doubling down on Globalization 2.0.’

Read here (Asia Times, April 2, 2020)

White House airlifts medical supplies from China amid Covid-19 crisis: 22 planeloads scheduled

‘A commercial aircraft carrying 80 tons of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai touched down in New York on Sunday, the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will funnel much-needed goods to the United States by early April as it battles the world’s largest coronavirus outbreak.

‘The plane delivered 130,000 N95 masks, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 10 million gloves and thousands of thermometers for distribution to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, said Lizzie Litzow, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ms. Litzow said that flights would be arriving in Chicago on Monday and in Ohio on Tuesday, and that supplies would be sent from there to other states using private-sector distribution networks.

‘While the goods that arrived in New York on Sunday will be welcomed by hospitals and health care workers — some of whom have resorted to rationing protective gear or using homemade supplies — they represent just a tiny portion of what American hospitals need. The Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that the United States will require 3.5 billion masks if the pandemic lasts a year.’

Read here (New York Times, March 30, 2020)