The People’s Republic of China is pursuing merciless power politics with a corona vaccine that is not very effective. In desperation, many countries turned to Chinese vaccines. A fatal mistake.
The dilemma surrounding ineffective vaccines from China is an international catastrophe. Many countries took a risk, relied on Chinese vaccines, were promised affordable conditions and loans from Beijing. For some developing and emerging countries in particular, it was the only way to get vaccine quickly. China took advantage of their misery.
Because what researchers have suspected for a long time is now becoming more and more certain: The vaccine from the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac apparently only offers comparatively little protection against Covid-19. That would significantly delay vaccination campaigns in many countries. Instead of providing information, China is holding back information about it, thereby exacerbating the crisis.
The use of the Chinese vaccine must end before China approves its own studies on its effectiveness. Until then, there must be no approval in the European Union either. With lies and a non-transparent corona policy, the People’s Republic is endangering the global fight against the pandemic – and with it human lives.
Lack of transparency makes you stunned
In Brazil, the Chinese vaccine achieved a protective effect against infections of only around 50 percent. After all: According to the company, it prevents 80 percent of serious illnesses that require medical treatment. But China is keeping the results of the important third phase of the clinical trial under wraps. That is irresponsible.
The damage is increased by the Chinese practice of silence. Not only developing countries, but also Brazil, Turkey, Chile, Serbia, Belarus and the EU member Hungary ordered the vaccine from Sinovac. Sometimes there are high levels of infection there. But the states that are busy inoculating the Sinovac vaccine are still in the dark about its exact effectiveness.
This is a severe blow to confidence in the Chinese corona aid. Of course, mistakes can be made or vaccines in the pandemic may not have the hoped-for effect. That is in the nature of this crisis. It is again the lack of transparency in China that is stunned in the vaccine debate.
Power struggle instead of solidarity
This vaccine debacle is only the next chapter in a chronicle of Chinese irresponsibility. Despite doubts about its effectiveness, the People’s Republic has pursued a merciless power politics with the vaccines in recent months. The main purpose of vaccine diplomacy was to expand one’s own influence in the competition for global supremacy with the United States. The motives for the Chinese lack of transparency are therefore calculating and selfish.
Chinese vaccine sales have little to do with global solidarity. On the one hand, it’s about power; on the other, Beijing wants to improve its image and not be the scapegoat that triggered the pandemic. This is where the crisis originated in China. This gives the country a special responsibility for the health of all people in the world. But China is constantly ignoring them.
Even the beginning of the pandemic was kept secret by the communist regime for a long time, infection numbers from the country are still not published, and bad developments have been hushed up. China is leaving the world in the fight against Corona in the lurch and is instead benefiting from the crisis. In economic terms, Beijing is enjoying a rapid upswing and the country has also been able to expand its influence in terms of power politics – also through the vaccine trade.
“It was a complete misunderstanding”
China does not want to afford to lose face. Therefore, the appearance of Gao Fu at a conference in Chengdu seemed to many observers as one of the few Chinese revelations in this pandemic. The authorities must “think about ways to solve the problem that the effectiveness of existing vaccines is not high,” said the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC). Ah, so there is a problem – and a senior Chinese official admits it.
After a wave of outrage around the world, Fu rowed back. “It was a complete misunderstanding,” he told the Global Times. Rather, he presented a “scientific vision” that an adaptation of the vaccination sequence or the allocation of different vaccines one after the other could also be options for increasing protection. His message is therefore: there is no problem, but people in China are still thinking about mixing vaccines in order to increase their effectiveness.
That communication is ridiculous. Because of the back and forth, China continues to lose credibility. People will completely rightly hesitate to have a mixed Chinese vaccination cocktail injected. The trust is gone. If China wants to win it back, the People’s Republic must work with the international community. So far, China has not been a superpower in this pandemic, just a large country that is primarily driven by the fear of losing face.
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