China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held a meeting to mark 30 years of formal ties, and appeared to smooth over tense spots in relations — with the help of Chinese vaccine aid, which has focused on Southeast Asia.
The highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, first identified in India, is proving hard to control in Guangzhou. Like with other localized outbreaks over the past year, China is attempting to isolate the virus by testing nearly every resident in the city — 18 million tests in just three days.
In other Chinese vaccine news, Sinovac Biotech becomes the second China-based company to win WHO approval for its shot, and Chinese vaccine makers promise even greater supply for developing countries.
As a small surge in COVID-19 cases disrupts life in Taiwan, and the island’s vaccine rollout continues slowly, Taiwanese officials blamed China for blocking some of their vaccine supply.
True to form for the world’s most populous nation, China is now administering eye-popping numbers of COVID-19 vaccinations. In a span of nine days, 100 million people in China recently received a shot.
Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine is the first Chinese-made shot to ever be approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization. The step affirms China’s growing scientific power, but is expected to have limited impact on vaccine supply in the short term.
The lore of Wang Shuang — and her status as China's most popular current footballer — grows. Last week, she put the national team on her back in the finals of the Tokyo Olympics qualifier.
Gao Fu, the director of China’s CDC, suggested mixing vaccines, adding doses, and looking into mRNA technology to improve the efficacy of COVID-19 shots. He later insisted that he wasn’t “admitting” to a low effectiveness of Chinese vaccines.
With five approved COVID-19 vaccines, China aims to give shots to 40% of its population in the next four months, while also delivering huge amounts of doses to Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico.
In the last 20 years, Beijing has turned healthcare into a national priority. But the country's history of counterfeit drugs and weak regulation casts a lingering shadow. The topic is particularly pertinent now, with Beijing's COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy in full swing.