Beijing Offers Egypt, Other African Nations, First Use of Future Vaccine
THE MEDIA LINE
…Guy Burton, a visiting fellow at the LSE Middle East Centre and an adjunct professor of international relations at Vesalius College in Brussels, told The Media Line that the consul-general’s remarks were in line with what Chinese President Xi Jinping said a few weeks ago during a virtual meeting with African leaders.
“Some African countries that have been partnering with China on Belt and Road projects and investment found themselves becoming indebted even before the COVID-19 pandemic,” Burton noted.
Xi said there would be debt relief for some of the loans and a restructuring of other forms of debt, he said, adding: “I’d see the recent statements about China’s partnership with Africa over COVID-19 assistance as part of this outreach.”
Burton continued: “So far, I can’t tell whether Chinese companies have been carrying out vaccine research and development in African countries. There’s a number [of such efforts] taking place in China while other, non-Chinese companies have been doing some research in Africa.”
He added that the most advanced development initiative seems to be one being carried out by a team in China together with a Canadian company, saying there was talk about fast-tracking it for use in the Chinese military.
As for the French doctors who speculated about conducting research and development in Africa, Burton said that perhaps this was because there might be looser ethical standards there.
“Criticism was made quite quickly, but also some analysts pointed out that it may be necessary to do some testing in Africa because of the variety of different contexts and effects that a vaccine might have on different groups of people and environments there,” he stated.
In terms of developing a COVID-19 vaccine, few companies are active and testing in Africa than elsewhere in the world.
“Egypt and South Africa are probably home to most of them,” he said.
Burton says it is not yet clear whether a Chinese vaccine would be freely available for African nations.
“I’d imagine that Beijing has one eye on the American response, which received some criticism in recent months, where they said that if they achieve a vaccine they will prioritize its production and use at home rather than making it available for everyone,” he said.
The Chinese president and his advisers see they can win easy points with other countries by offering some vaccines for free or at cost, he adds.
“If you go back to the start of 2017, Xi Jinping won a lot of plaudits by portraying China as the defender of globalization, as opposed to the incoming Trump Administration’s protectionist instincts and ‘America First’ attitude,” Burton said.
