Editorial | Beijing jab donations show it has health of Africa at its heart
- A forum with countries from the continent has illustrated that in times of crisis China’s interest extends beyond economic and infrastructure development
Just 7 per cent of Africans are fully vaccinated and China’s aim is to raise that to 60 per cent next year. The Omicron variant, which was first identified in southern Africa, is believed in part to have mutated due to low vaccination rates.
Xi’s pledge at the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation is therefore timely. In addition to the 1 billion doses – 600 million to be donated, the rest to be produced in partnership with African firms – Beijing will deploy 1,500 Chinese medical personnel.
But as other announcements at the ministerial meeting showed, Beijing’s commitment to African nations runs deep. Allaying concerns that loans would dry up, Xi announced an expansion of trade and investment.
Of the US$30 billion pledged, US$10 billion was earmarked to boost African imports and the same amount allocated to African financial institutions for lending to small and medium-sized enterprises. Interest-free loans due this year would be written off and Chinese firms encouraged to invest a further US$10 billion in Africa.