Major powers should help world get vaccinated, Chinese envoy says

Major powers should commit to providing vaccines to low- and middle-income countries and help ramp up their COVID-19 vaccine production, said the Chinese ambassador to the United States during a pandemic ministerial meeting held online on Wednesday.

Speaking as a representative of State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Ambassador Qin Gang said China firmly supports developing countries in fighting the pandemic and has provided them with large numbers of medical supplies.

Qin said President Xi Jinping has emphasized on many occasions that vaccines should be made a global public good. Xi has also proposed a Global Vaccine Cooperation Action Initiative, calling for the fair distribution of vaccines globally, equal treatment of different vaccines and mutual recognition of vaccines in accordance with the World Health Organization's Emergency Use Listing.

"We should translate the consensus that vaccines are a global public good into concrete actions, ensure their fair and equitable distribution as well as their accessibility and affordability in developing countries, and thus work together to close the immunization gap," Xi said in a speech delivered via video to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit on Thursday.

At Wednesday's online ministerial meeting hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Qin said China has provided more than 1.7 billion doses of finished and bulk vaccines to at least 100 countries so far and will provide a total of 2 billion doses within this year.

Global initiative

"We have supplied over 70 million doses of vaccines and donated $100 million to COVAX," said Qin, referring to the global initiative led by the WHO to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

"Vaccine supply should be maximized through a combination of donations, commercial purchases, joint production and other means."

More than 99 percent of vaccines that China has provided for the world have been shipped to developing countries. In September, Xi announced that China would donate 100 million vaccine doses to developing countries by the end of this year.

In addition, China has launched an Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on COVID-19 Vaccines Cooperation with 30 countries and is conducting joint vaccine production with 19 developing countries.

The Chinese ambassador said solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapons to defeat COVID-19, and countries must take a scientific attitude, and oppose stigmatization and politicization.

"Major countries need to earnestly shoulder their responsibilities in taking the lead in providing vaccines to low- and mid-income countries quickly and help them build up production of vaccines," he said.

Also at the ministerial meeting, Blinken said there is an emergent need to accelerate the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide, given that more than half of the population is fully vaccinated in North America and Europe, while less than 10 percent of the African population is.

Blinken also announced a deal to bring COVID-19 vaccines into conflict zones, where government vaccination campaigns have been unable to reach people.

Globally, there have been more than 250 million COVID-19 cases with around 5 million deaths, according to the WHO.