The buzzword masks several misleading or harmful assumptions both about China and about recipient countries.
By
March 11, 2021
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In recent months, the term “vaccine diplomacy” has become a popular buzzword used in the media to describe India’s, Russia’s, and in particular, China’s global COVID-19 vaccine rollout. But its usage requires examination. After all, buzzwords do not exist in a vacuum and have the ability to shape national and foreign policies.
There are at least five reasons to be skeptical of its usage.
First, “China’s vaccine diplomacy” can be seen as an extension of the Chinese “debt-trap diplomacy” theory that became a cornerstone of the Trump administration’s Africa policy – despite being disproven – to deter African states from cooperating with China. The term “China’s vaccine diplomacy” implicitly raises questions about the efficacy of China’s vaccines by encouraging the notion that the rollout is simply a strate
China s vaccine diplomacy sparks concern
Dozens of countries are looking to China to rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. That s because the Chinese government has pledged to donate nearly half a billion vaccine doses worldwide. After China s initial failures in handling the first outbreak, vaccine diplomacy could be a face-saving tactic to change the narrative and expand the country s influence.
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