Team News Riveting
Having received a big jolt from India over the vaccine diplomacy, China now wished to work with the international community to fight the virus; sending an overt signal that it has lost the serum war.
The development added significance as China has till now kept the international community at bay and even denied access to the international community including the World Health Organisation (WHO) to Wuhan for probing the origin of coronavirus.
“The pressing task for the international community is to work together to fight the pandemic. The COVID-19 vaccine is a global public good, and it’s up to each country to decide which vaccine it will use,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at Monday’s media briefing while responding to India’s victory over the vaccine.
“On this issue (of Indian and Chinese vaccine), there should not be vicious competition, and certainly not confrontation,” Zhao said. They welcome and hope that more countries can produce safer and more effective vaccines, and provide them to more developing countries to benefit more people, he added.
It is up to each country to decide which COVID-19 vaccine it wishes to use, and there should not be vicious competition or confrontation, as China welcomes more countries to produce effective vaccines to benefit more people, Chinese Foreign Ministry said in response to reports claiming countries that were offered Chinese vaccines have “turned to India” amid questions about the “efficacy of some of the Chinese jabs.”
Zhao’s made the remarks after some Indian media smeared Chinese vaccines,
The state-owned Chinese media said some Western media outlets said India was preparing to give millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses to South Asian countries in the following weeks and claimed it drew praise from India’s neighbors while “pushing back against China’s dominating presence in the region.”
Zhao said that China is earnestly fulfilling its pledge to make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good. China is working with other countries, especially developing countries, to carry out international cooperation on vaccines in different ways and provide support and assistance according to their needs.
