{"id":70409,"date":"2021-07-16T14:12:13","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T14:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=70409"},"modified":"2021-07-16T14:20:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T14:20:18","slug":"german-fm-china-using-vaccine-donations-for-political-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=70409","title":{"rendered":"German FM: China using vaccine donations for political ends"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"News Desk:<\/strong> Germany\u2019s foreign minister on Tuesday accused China of tying the delivery of coronavirus vaccines to political demands.<\/p>\n

Heiko Maas said both Russia and China had been good at publicly promoting the delivery of their vaccines to other countries, but also pursued other aims in doing so.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe note, in particular with China, that the supply of vaccines was also used to make very clear political demands of various countries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters during a trip to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Maas visited a Pfizer production facility, he added that such behavior should be rejected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to prevent this happening in the first place we don\u2019t just have to criticize it, but we have to ensure that the affected countries have alternatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose alternative are the vaccines we have available and which we of course want to make available to as many countries and regions in the world as possible,\u201d said Maas. \u201c(That way) the Russians and the Chinese can\u2019t continue to conduct their difficult vaccine diplomacy in this fashion, which only has the purpose of increase their own influence and not necessarily to save people\u2019s lives in the first instance.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he didn\u2019t provide any specific examples, Taiwan has accused China of using the delivery of its shots to pressure countries into dropping their support for Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.<\/p>\n

Chinese officials said recently that their country is providing coronavirus vaccines to nearly 40 African countries, but said this was being done for purely altruistic reasons.<\/p>\n

Last month, diplomats in Geneva told The Associated Press that China had pressured Ukraine into withdrawing its support for a call for more scrutiny of human rights in China\u2019s western region of Xinjiang by threatening to withhold Chinese-made vaccine.<\/p>\n

Source: AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News Desk: Germany\u2019s foreign minister on Tuesday accused China of tying the delivery of coronavirus vaccines to political demands. Heiko Maas said both Russia and China had been good at publicly promoting the delivery of their vaccines to other countries, but also pursued other aims in doing so. \u201cWe note, in particular with China, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":70410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n