Many countries find it difficult to get corona vaccines.
China donates or sells its vaccines to these countries.
It is a successful vaccination diplomacy that the West is suspicious of.
Munich / Beijing - The corona pandemic has produced a lot of new words.
One of them is “vaccination diplomacy”.
It describes how countries want to ensure good relationships with their vaccines in the face of the global shortage of Covid-19 vaccines.
China is particularly active in this field.
The country sells and donates its vaccines developed by three corporations all over the world - including Europe.
"China has donated vaccination doses to 53 countries and sold vaccinations to 22 countries," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday.
Years ago, China announced the concept of a “Health Silk Road” - as part of its international infrastructure program “New Silk Road”.
The West views China's vaccination diplomacy, like Russia's, with suspicion - for geopolitical, not health-political reasons.
"From Brussels or Washington, the global use of Chinese vaccines is inevitably seen in the context of the rivalry between great powers," says Jacob Mardell, analyst at the Mercator Institute of China Studies (MERICS).
But the problem in the recipient countries is usually simply the urgent need.
Corona vaccines: uneven distribution in the world
According to a report by the respected medical journal
The Lancet
, rich developed countries have secured 70 percent of the vaccines expected to be available in 2021 - at least 4.2 billion doses.
However, only 16 percent of the global population live in these states.
The aid organization Oxfam warned that only one in ten could be vaccinated in 70 poor countries in 2021.
The Covax initiative, which on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to make vaccines available as evenly as possible, is now starting too slowly and urgently needs additional vaccine doses.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier therefore called on the richer nations on Monday to give some of their Corona vaccine quantities to poorer countries.
This is a question of humanity and "our own standards." Steinmeier warned that those who refuse the necessary solidarity should not be surprised if other countries use this vacuum with deliveries for their own purposes.
"The pandemic is also a geopolitical moment with enormous implications for our future and the role we will play in the post-pandemic world."
At the Munich Security Conference, French President Emmanuel Macron also called for vaccines to be dispensed.
In Africa around 13 million doses are needed to vaccinate health workers, which the West can and should deliver: "If you just give the affected countries money, they will order the vaccines in China or Russia."
The WHO also called on governments to “look beyond their own borders” and share vaccine doses with Covax.
Meanwhile in Beijing Foreign Office spokesman Wang Wenbin announced on Monday that he would donate vaccine to another 19 African countries.
China joined Covax rather late and has so far committed ten million vaccine doses.
China's corona vaccine: already delivered to Hungary, Serbia and Belarus in Europe
In Europe, Serbia has so far received the most vaccine from China with 1.5 million doses of Covid vaccine from the state-owned company Sinopharm and was therefore able to present a high vaccination rate.
When the first Sinopharm vaccine doses arrived, President Aleksandar Vucic criticized the EU and Covax.
They wouldn't have delivered a single one of the vaccine doses that were promised.
"The rich and the richest only save themselves and their loved ones." For China, the good diplomatic relations with EU candidate Serbia are quite useful.
In addition, EU member Hungary - deliberately bypassing Brussels - also ordered Sinopharm vaccine in Beijing.
550,000 cans arrived in Budapest last week on a special plane.
Hungary had specially sent the machine to Beijing.
Beijing has also delivered vaccine to Belarus.
At the 17 + 1 conference between China and Central and Eastern Europe, President Xi Jinping offered further vaccine deliveries.
+
The first batch of the corona vaccine from China arrives in Hungary.
The country ordered past Brussels directly in Beijing.
© Zoltan Mathe / picture alliance / dpa / MTI / AP
The first three countries in Africa to get the Chinese vaccine were
Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea
, according to the official
Xinhua
news agency
.
In some developing countries, especially in Africa, the Chinese vaccines are the main pillar of the vaccination effort.
Often - like recently in Argentina - China's vaccines have been approved with emergency approvals because the countries did not want to waste time with the lengthy series of tests.
China as a rescue in a vaccination emergency?
"It was the only choice"
“When it comes to the driving forces behind the sales contracts with China, the picture emerges as a satisfactory solution that meets extreme demand.
China and now Russia win sales contracts simply because they can deliver, ”says Mardell.
“I keep hearing the same thing from experts and locals in countries that vaccinate people with Chinese vaccines.
All of them tell me from Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates: This was not a political choice;
it was the only choice. "
Experts criticize that the Chinese companies Sinopharm and Sinovac do not handle their data in a particularly transparent manner.
But there have been no reports to date that anything is wrong with the effectiveness of their vaccines - which is good news for now.
+
Donation from China: 200,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine arrived at Harare airport in Zimbabwe in mid-February.
© Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / picture alliance / dpa / AP
China's vaccination diplomacy: more exports than vaccinations at home
It is surprising that China apparently exports more vaccines than it does at home.
Given the persistently low number of cases in China, Beijing sees more scope for exports than the US or Europe.
On February 9, the country
administered 40.5 million vaccinations at home,
according to the
Bloomberg
news agency's
Covid Vaccine Tracker
- that is 2.9 doses per 100 inhabitants.
In mid-February, however, the country
had already exported or donated 46 million cans,
according to a report by the Hong Kong
South China Morning Post
.
For comparison: According to
Bloomberg-Covid Vaccine Tracker, there were
5.86 doses per 100 inhabitants in
Germany
on Sunday, 19 in the USA, 18 in Serbia and 78.8 in Israel - regardless of whether it was the first or second Dose.
In Bangladesh, however, it was only 1.1 and in Indonesia 0.74 cans.
Germany is therefore only slightly behind other - not all - EU states.
The real gap is between the global north and south.
(ck)
