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The US offers have been made by senior diplomats, including during a December trip to China by Assistant Secretary of State Daniel J. Kritenbrink and National Security Council Senior Director Laura Rosenberger, as well as through public health officials and intermediaries. Although US officials have said publicly that they have offered vaccines to China, the full extent of that outreach hasn’t been previously reported.
At a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China’s vaccine and medical supplies were ‘’overall in adequate supply.’’
‘’We have enough vaccines to make sure that people eligible have access to vaccines,’’ she said. ‘’We will continue to work with the international community, including the US, to better deal with the challenge of COVID and protect people’s life and health.’’
It’s unclear how useful mRNA shots would be as the Omicron variant runs rampant in China — antivirals to treat infection, like Pfizer’s Paxlovid, is the more urgent need now.
The problem for the Communist Party has more been persuading its vulnerable elderly population to take the jab: Only about two-thirds of people over age 80 have gotten fully vaccinated as of November, the last time data was released.
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Moreover, accepting vaccines from the US is likely a nonstarter politically for Xi, as it would shine a spotlight on Beijing’s failure to develop its own mRNA vaccine at a time when China is pushing for self-reliance amid a broader strategic fight with the US. China historically has been reticent to accept outside assistance during crises.
The rising frustration — shared by both sides — underscores just how hard it will be for the US and China to stabilize ties after a meeting between Xi and President Biden in Bali last year. It has also highlighted the significant distrust and suspicion that remain between the world’s two biggest economies.
‘’The Xi administration’s propaganda narrative on COVID has long emphasized its ‘success’ as an outcome of China’s unique political institutions, and so this has artificially limited access to external vaccines,’’ said Jude Blanchette, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
‘’Even in the midst of a catastrophic outbreak of COVID, Beijing continues to emphasize vaccine nationalism, a decision that will undoubtedly result in unnecessary deaths,’’ Blanchette said.
Early on, as tens of thousands of Americans died, China held up its zero-COVID approach of strict quarantines, travel limits, and heavy masking as a model to the world that it was saving lives — and pointedly suggested the US was recklessly killing its people. But now China is suddenly allowing the virus to run rampant, an abrupt shift that occurred days after spontaneous street protests against lockdowns.
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As a result, the US has ramped up its offers in recent weeks, one of the people said. The two sides continue to speak through health channels, another person said, adding that China’s response to the repeated US offers has been firm. Every time, Chinese officials have told their US interlocutors that Beijing has the situation under control and doesn’t require assistance, according to the people.
China has never lacked access to mRNA shots. Chinese company Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. licensed the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer nearly three years ago and planned to distribute 100 million doses in the country, but authorities in Beijing haven’t granted regulatory approval so far.
Xi’s administration has officially acknowledged about 30 COVID deaths since it abandoned strict pandemic controls at the beginning of December, prompting governments around the world to impose restrictions on Chinese travelers. China has said the shift was the correct policy because Omicron isn’t as deadly as other variants.