It intends to provide the Corona vaccine in large quantities and at reasonable prices
China presents itself as a savior for the developing world
The Chinese vaccine is in a phase III clinical trial.
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China is seeking major deals with developing countries.
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In 2020, China erred in its initial response to "Covid-19", and as a result, the disease spread around the world, crippling economies, killing more than 1.2 million people around the world, and severely damaging Beijing's image.
And in 2021, China plans to compensate by vaccinating a large portion of the world's population.
Although it faces stiff competition from the United States and other Western countries in the race to develop the first vaccine, Beijing is poised to control vaccine distribution in the developing world and reap the strategic benefits from doing so.
Worldwide, 11 vaccine candidates are currently undergoing phase III trials, which is the final stage before regulatory approval.
Four of them are tray.
The most promising of these products, developed by Sinopharm, a Wuhan-based company, has already been offered to frontline workers in the UAE.
According to Wu Guizen, chief biosafety expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the "Sinopharm" vaccine is on its way to getting full approval this month or next month.
The leading American candidates could be approved from "Moderna" and "Pfizer", on a similar timetable.
But US President Donald Trump's administration has no plan to compete with China to distribute vaccines to more than half of the people who live in the developing world.
The United States refused to participate in the WHO initiative to provide two billion doses of vaccines to at-risk populations in developing countries, and did not provide funding or sign preferential vaccine distribution agreements with these countries, such as China.
Washington's approach to vaccine development and distribution, as it is with many during this administration, has been "America first."
By ceding public health to China, the United States will allow Beijing to reform itself not only as a global leader in vaccine development and distribution, but as the savior of the developing world.
Out of the race
Even if China wins the race to develop a vaccine, its producers are unlikely to compete in the US, European, or Japanese markets.
Chinese vaccine makers have struggled to remove the regulatory hurdles needed to sell to developed Western markets.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many developed Western countries are trying to "re-subsidize" the production of medical supplies from China.
Most of them have already signed huge purchase deals with major Western vaccine manufacturers, such as Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
For a high-income country, the price of vaccinating each citizen will be negligible compared to the cost of another closure.
Moderna estimates that its vaccine will cost between $ 64 and $ 74 per person, including the required booster vaccine.
But in the vast emerging markets of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, where more than half of the world's population lives and where many governments can barely afford vaccines, Chinese producers are on the verge of dominance.
The Chinese vaccines are in the third phase of clinical trials in 18 countries, including Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE.
This is a huge potential market, even if, in the end, Beijing subsidizes vaccine prices.
In fact, Beijing's vaccine distribution strategy is likely to depend largely on subsidies.
Chinese President Xi Jinping hinted, for the first time, to this strategy, in May, when he promised that any Chinese vaccine for "Covid-19" would be a "global public good."
Jinping promised to provide one billion dollars in loans to Latin American and Caribbean countries to pay for Chinese vaccines.
And last month, Mexico signed a deal with another Chinese vaccine maker, "Kan Sino", with a vaccine in the third phase of trials, to buy 70 million doses with a promised Chinese loan.
China plans to start exporting these doses even before it vaccinates all of its citizens, a gesture that is sure to generate additional goodwill.
China will use these preferential vaccine deals to cement partnerships with governments in regions it considers of strategic importance, such as Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Since 2013, Beijing has used preferential financing for major infrastructure projects with a similar impact, through the Belt and Road Initiative.
Many of these megaprojects have faltered this year as the pandemic and subsequent economic crisis strained recipient countries' financial resources.
In 2021, by refocusing the world's attention on the "healthy Silk Road", China will seek to rename itself a technical leader and a steward of global public health, avoiding US accusations of being a "bully" and "predator."
Eike Freeman is the author of One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World.
Justin Stiping is a professor at Imperial College London.
Useful friendship
The subsidized Chinese vaccines will have a price, and although Beijing is unlikely to demand specific political concessions, it at least expects recipient countries to show their gratitude.
And early in the Corona crisis, Serbian President Alexander Vucic kissed the Chinese flag, after a plane loaded with supplies arrived from China.
Soon after, a huge billboard appeared in front of the National Assembly building in Belgrade, saying: "Thank you, Senior Brother Shi."
On March 24, the week in which deaths due to "Covid-19" reached their peak in Italy, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio credited the Chinese respirators and masks for preventing the deterioration of the bad situation, and said: "Those who made fun of our participation "In the Belt and Road initiative, they now have to admit that investing in that friendship allowed us to save lives."
And when China distributes vaccines around the world next year, such behavior may repeat.
And national governments will not be limited to embracing China's new dedication to global public health, and international institutions will continue to praise China for making huge commitments, hoping - reasonably - to encourage them to fulfill them by appeasing Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“President Jinping’s proposal for the Silk Road, which strengthens and renews the ancient ties between cultures and peoples, with health at its core, is truly a vision for the future,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a speech in Beijing in 2017.
The WHO is unlikely to change course if America cuts funding and withdraws, in July, as Trump has promised to do if re-elected.
Although China initially paid a diplomatic price for its failure to control the new Corona virus, it is preparing to repair its damaged reputation by reintroducing itself as a public health service provider to the developing world.
If Washington continues to reject the competition, it will not only risk losing the vaccine race, and China will be allowed to win the prestige of a first-class technological power, the goodwill of a large number of new potential allies, and the legitimate claim to global leadership.
Even if China wins the race to develop a vaccine, its producers are unlikely to compete in the US, European, or Japanese markets.
Although it faces stiff competition from the United States and other Western countries, in the race to develop the first vaccine, Beijing is poised to control vaccine distribution in the developing world and reap the strategic benefits from doing so.
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