As I see it | Coronavirus: from Iran to Japan, leaders are seen getting vaccinated. Why not in China?
- They’re rolling up their sleeves in front of the cameras as they try to boost public confidence in vaccinations
- But this goes against the Chinese political culture, where the health of leaders is regarded as a state secret
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But in China, there has been no word on whether leaders or even senior officials have had the jab.
Gao Fu, who heads the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said last year that he intended to get vaccinated, while retired officials like former commerce minister Chen Deming are among the few who have publicly confirmed that they have been immunised.
That of course does not mean China’s leaders and senior officials have not been vaccinated – in fact, there was speculation they had been given experimental jabs very early on in the pandemic and some, like top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, are unlikely to have taken overseas trips in the past year without being vaccinated.