aid and international standing

• • Beijing’s ‘mask diplomacy’ sought to bolster China’s image as a responsible global power
  • It was widely perceived as part of Beijing’s attempt to control the narrative around the pandemic and distract from its initial cover-up and the fruition of a deadly virus.
  • Key personnel in global politics such as Donald Trump insistently pushed COVID as a ‘foreign virus’, ‘Chinese virus’ or ‘Wuhuan virus’ - personifying the threat of the Chinese ethnicity. 
• • Xi Jingping (at an International Conference on COVID in 2021) insisted that the provision of vaccines - a ‘global public good’ - contributed to China’s overall vision of a ‘shared future for the people of the world to work as one’.  
  • This contributes to the achievement of China’s aims to provide ‘financial resources for foreign assistance’ (2014 White Paper on Foreign Aid), solidifying their political power to influence other nations in ways that strengthen their sovereignty. 
• Bloomberg

  • Chinese donations of physical aid jumped to almost $1.3 billion in 2021. 
  • 40% higher than in 2020. 
  • Vaccines accounted for nearly 60% in 2021.
  • The People’s Liberation Army has contributed to this expansion. As of September 2021, the PLA had delivered medical supplies and aid to at least 52 countries. 
• LIMITATIONS to ACHIEVING INTERNATIONAL STANDING

  • A New York Times Article featured a propaganda video produced by the Chinese government, in which ‘grateful’ workers were depicted packing their suitcases for their new positions in a factory to produce masks. 
• • "But behind this propaganda is a hidden story, about a longstanding and highly controversial government labour program that experts say often puts people to work against their will,"
  • "We identified several Chinese companies that use Uighur labour to produce PPE, and we tracked some of their shipments to consumers in the US and around the world."
• • China’s ‘vaunting’ of economic successes, scientific and medical achievements seeks to counter harsh views of repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
  • In some countries, there is some evidence that providing vaccines enabled Beijing to advance its foreign policy objectives.
  • Hungary, for example, blocked EU statements criticising China in April 2021 over the new security law in Hong Kong, just a few weeks after the country purchased millions of doses of Chinese vaccines.