Coronavirus: China hits out at vaccine ‘hoarding’ nations during BRICS talks
- Foreign Minister Wang Yi says that in contrast, more than 350 million Chinese shots have been sent to other countries
- He also urges emerging economies in the bloc to stand against ‘unilateral acts under the banner of multilateralism’
Wang Yi made the remarks on Tuesday in a virtual meeting of foreign ministers from the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. China, India and Russia all have vaccine makers.
“The coronavirus pandemic has seen cases growing in the global south and declining in the north – the hoarding of vaccines and control of exports from some developed countries is not unrelated to this,” Wang said during the talks hosted by his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
“We hope that BRICS countries will continue to make vaccines a global public good, and adhere to the principle of fair and reasonable distribution,” Wang said. “[We] support our vaccine makers to transfer their technology to other developing countries to co-produce vaccines.”
China’s foreign minister urged the BRICS nations to stand against “unilateral acts under the banner of multilateralism” such as a “domestic first” approach, forming “clubs”, and “selective multilateralism”. He said some countries were exercising hegemony “in the name of multilateralism”.
Lin Minwang, a professor and assistant dean at the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, said given their strained ties it was important for China to find common ground with India on vaccines.
“BRICS is a multilateral platform that China shares with India, so it’s a good chance to point out that India has many roles in the vaccine roll-out,” Lin said. “Instead of just cooperating with the US, Japan and Australia [in the Quad grouping’s vaccine initiative], it is important to point out … that its ability to produce vaccines can benefit the world beyond this context,” he said, giving the example of India agreeing to produce Russia’s Sputnik V shots.
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Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine
China has sought to position itself as a global vaccine supplier, but critics say it is engaging in “vaccine diplomacy” to win points and future business opportunities. While Beijing has said it supports any country pledging to offer doses to developing nations, it has criticised US-led initiatives to expand vaccine production in the region like that of the Quad, which it calls an “anti-China club”.
Under the Quad’s plan announced in March, the US, Japan and Australia will provide funding for India – the No 1 producer of vaccines globally – to manufacture up to 1 million doses to be distributed in Asia, mainly Southeast Asia, by the end of next year.
But progress on the initiative is unclear since India stopped exporting vaccines last month as it battles a devastating second wave of infections.
Coronavirus: China pledges US$3 billion in aid to developing nations
The foreign ministers in a joint communique on Monday also called for a BRICS vaccine research and development centre to get up and running – a centre initiated by China and established in Beijing.
