Omicron may mean China’s success in tackling Covid-19 is ‘fleeting’, says US report

Beijing’s ‘opportunistic’ efforts to portray itself as a global health leader may be undermined by the new variant, Council for Foreign Relations report argues

Washington urged not to ‘overreact’ to Chinese efforts and seek ways to cooperate on tackling challenges such as the pandemic

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China has been keen to higlight its successes in fighting Covid-19. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:25am, 4 Feb 2022

The spread of the Omicron variant will make China’s success in tackling Covid-19 “look more fleeting” and could undermine its efforts to present itself as a global health leader, a US think tank report has said.

“China’s efforts to seek global health leadership remain opportunistic, and its mask diplomacy and vaccine diplomacy have thus far achieved mixed and limited success,” wrote Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the New York-based Council for Foreign Relations.

“Those challenges are especially pronounced now that highly transmissible variants are challenging China’s draconian pandemic response and casting doubt on the efficacy rates of Chinese vaccines.

“China’s vulnerability in manoeuvring for global health leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic presents the United States an opportunity to reassert its global leadership,” Huang, who is also the director of the Centre for Global Health Studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, wrote.

China, which recorded its first Omicron cases last month, insists it will not loosen its strict border and lock-down policies even though many other countries have decided to “coexist” with the coronavirus to return to normal economic activity and daily living.

Beijing has been keen to present itself as a successful example of largely containing Covid-19 with the use of strict border controls and lockdowns. It has also offered Chinese-made vaccines, masks and medical equipment to other countries – although it rejects Western descriptions of its policies as “vaccine diplomacy”.

Both China and the United States have said that it is important to work together in fighting the pandemic, but in practice it has become another source of tension – with Washington and its allies accusing China of refusing to cooperate with investigations into the source of the virus while Beijing has accused them of trying to politicise the issue.