Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged Monday to provide a billion doses of his nation’s COVID-19 vaccine to Africa.
Xi said in a speech at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that this initiative will include 600 million doses as a donation and 400 million from “joint means.”
CHINA TO BEGIN VACCINATING CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS 3 AGAINST COVID-19
“We need to put people and their lives first, be guided by science, support waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, and truly ensure the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in Africa to bridge the immunization gap,” he said in his speech.
Xi said the goal is to help the African Union achieve its goal of vaccinating 60% of the African population by 2022.
China has administered approximately 2.5 billion doses of the vaccine, accounting for an estimated 88% of the country being vaccinated, according to the New York Times COVID-19 world vaccine tracker. China is the seventh-most vaccinated country in the world, according to the outlet.
Last April, the head of China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that the country’s vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates.” Still, a study released in September indicated that they can help prevent serious illness, Reuters reported. Several studies done on China’s vaccines suggest it produces lower levels of antibodies and wanes quicker than the mRNA vaccines made in the U.S., according to Nature.
The U.S. currently leads the rest of the world in terms of the number of vaccines delivered to foreign nations. Prior to China’s commitment to Africa, the U.S. also led on COVID-19 vaccine commitments to foreign nations.
The US was late to vaccine diplomacy. And still could be doing much much more.
But is now leading the world by a long margin. pic.twitter.com/4diCbezZEp
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) November 26, 2021
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
During his speech, Xi laid out nine different programs for the China-Africa Cooperation Vision 2035. It included healthcare, poverty reduction, trade promotion, investment promotion, digital innovation, green development, capacity building, cultural exchange, and security initiatives.
China has faced criticism for conducting “debt-trap diplomacy” with African nations by offering countries loans that they are unable to pay back. Chinese officials have rejected this notion.
