covid aid (china)

• Beijing's 'mask diplomacy' sought to bolster China's image as a responsible global power
• 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
• Donald Trump: '"It's not racist at all…It's from China"'
• Where this insight increased amounts of xenophobic attacks, particularly against Asian Americans, 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
• Vaccine and PPE Diplomacy

  China's provision of medical aid and vaccines has frequently come with 'strings attached'
• Chinese request that countries show gratitude towards Beijing and support Chinese foreign policy goals
• Chinese donations of physical aid jumped to almost $1.3 billion in 2021
• aid was 40% higher than in 2020
• aid accounts for 25% of China's total official development assistance to other countries, with the rest being assistance for infrastructure construction
• Vaccines accounted for nearly 60% of aid in 2021
• 'Recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state almost completely disqualifies a country from receiving Chinese aid' (Gottingen University)
• China's 'vaunting' of economic successes, scientific and medical achievements seeks to counter harsh views of repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang
• Of the top 10 countries who have received vaccines from China, 6/10 are of lower-middle income. The vast majority of vaccines have been delivered bilaterally.
• The implications of bilateral delivering means that there has been a degree of discussion or conference between states, which has the efficacy of producing external achievements for China
• China was already the largest global supplier of PPE before the pandemic - an exported amount worth $25 billion in 2019. During 2020, this surged to $78.3 billion
• 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
• 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
• Likewise, In Paraguay (according to The Guardian), the government reported it had been approached by unofficial brokers offering access to the Chinese-manufactured Covid-19 vaccine in return for cutting diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Beijing has dismissed the claim as 'malicious disinformation'
• such endeavours of Beijing have sought to rectify their 'blame' in the COVID-19 pandemic, and improve their overall international presence as a contributor to a more 'equal and orderly multipolar world'
• 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'