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Coronavirus: China will fulfil its promise to make its vaccines a global public good, foreign minister says
- Beijing will also ‘contribute to the accessibility and affordability of the vaccines in developing countries’, Wang Yi says
- Statement comes after Wang’s charm offensive in Southeast Asia
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China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has reiterated Beijing’s promise to make Chinese Covid-19 vaccines a “global public product”.
He made the comments after meeting envoys from Indonesia and the Philippines in southwest China’s Yunnan province and visiting Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand and Singapore last week.
“China will earnestly fulfil its commitment to make vaccines a global public product once they are successfully developed and put into use, and will contribute to the accessibility and affordability of the vaccines in developing countries,” he was quoted as saying in a Xinhua article published on Saturday.
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Several representatives of Southeast Asian countries had expressed an interest in working with China on vaccine research and development, he said.
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China is a leader in Covid-19 vaccine development, accounting for four of the 11 candidates in final stage clinical trials around the world, but is also known for its high-profile vaccine scandals, which has led to questions about the efficacy and safety of its products.
Earlier this month, Beijing signed up to Covax, a global initiative led by the World Health Organization that is designed to ensure the fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, especially to poorer countries.
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