People wearing face masks line up to receive the COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination site in Jiangxia District in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province, June 9, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
China has now administered over 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, with 500 million administered in just one month. The country now leads the world both in terms of speed and volume of vaccines administered, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the total inoculations worldwide.
This admirable milestone mirrors the earlier pandemic control measures taken by China.
For example, early in the outbreak, China erected high-capacity temporary hospitals in just a few days, with massive resources mobilized to help turn the tide.
China’s impressive vaccination drive can be attributed to a number of factors, with the key being strong people-centered leadership by the Communist Party of China.
While the threat levels in China are comparatively low, the people’s trust in government-led programs has seen more Chinese enlist to be inoculated. China has also leveraged its strong technological and industrial capacity, enabling Chinese vaccine companies to manufacture millions of doses daily. A strong push for company and product diversification, in which China does not rely on one company or vaccine, has helped fuel healthy competition, leading to higher industrial output.
China’s massive vaccination campaign at home has implications abroad.
First, when China achieves herd immunity, Beijing will have even more headroom to assist other countries to overcome the pandemic through vaccine supplies.
The world has witnessed just how perilous it is to rely on countries with weak pandemic responses to supply vaccines. India — the main source of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines for developing countries through the COVAX initiative, which aims to ensure vaccine access to low-income countries — was forced to ban exports of the vaccines as it raced to fight a deadly new wave of COVID-19. Vaccine hoarding by other nations producing vaccines also was the result of the active threat of COVID-19 in their own backyards.
On the other hand, the initial slow pace of rolling out domestic vaccination in China was largely a result of the decision by China to prioritize other, more vulnerable countries. China has so far engaged in vaccine aid through donations to and direct purchases by over 120 countries. In Africa, where China ranks as the largest provider of COVID-19 vaccines, more than 40 countries have so far received Chinese jabs.
Second, as the most enduring solution to the global health crisis, mass vaccination will ensure that China’s productive sectors continue to operate uninterrupted. This is important, given that China accounts for 30 percent of global economic growth.
Third, vaccination success in China, frees up substantial resources that could then be dedicated to solving the challenge of inoculation in other developing countries. Africa, with a population exceeding 1.2 billion, has experienced a stagnant vaccination pace. So far, just 0.8 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, compared with 70 percent in North America and 61 percent in Europe.
More countries in Africa are reporting an emergence of more contagious, deadlier virus variants, which are fueling new waves of COVID-19.
It is therefore incumbent on well-meaning international actors to harness existing potential to defeat the pandemic. China is setting a good example and should be emulated.
The writer is a Kenya-based scholar of international relations with a focus on China-Africa ties.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.