The subject of vaccines features prominently in China’s discussions with other countries. But any soft power advantage could be undercut by failures in rolling out a Chinese vaccine programme overseas. Photo: AFP The subject of vaccines features prominently in China’s discussions with other countries. But any soft power advantage could be undercut by failures in rolling out a Chinese vaccine programme overseas. Photo: AFP
The subject of vaccines features prominently in China’s discussions with other countries. But any soft power advantage could be undercut by failures in rolling out a Chinese vaccine programme overseas. Photo: AFP
Josephine Ma
Opinion

Opinion

As I see it by Josephine Ma

Beijing may balk at ‘vaccine diplomacy’ term but beating Covid-19 is key to China’s outreach plan

  • State media rejects that China’s future vaccine aid is conditional while Beijing admits it is in a propaganda battle to reshape the pandemic narrative
  • If anything goes wrong during a Chinese-backed immunisation roll-out overseas, China may bear the brunt

Josephine Ma
Josephine Ma

Updated: 10:13pm, 5 Jan, 2021

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The subject of vaccines features prominently in China’s discussions with other countries. But any soft power advantage could be undercut by failures in rolling out a Chinese vaccine programme overseas. Photo: AFP The subject of vaccines features prominently in China’s discussions with other countries. But any soft power advantage could be undercut by failures in rolling out a Chinese vaccine programme overseas. Photo: AFP
The subject of vaccines features prominently in China’s discussions with other countries. But any soft power advantage could be undercut by failures in rolling out a Chinese vaccine programme overseas. Photo: AFP
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Josephine Ma

Josephine Ma

Josephine Ma is China news editor and has covered China news for the Post for more than 20 years. As a correspondent in Beijing, she reported on everything from the 2003 Sars outbreak to the riots in Lhasa and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She has been based in Hong Kong since 2009. She has a master’s degree in development studies from the London School of Economics and a bachelor’s degree in English language from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.