Global Diplomacy

China Announces Two Billion COVID-19 Vaccines to Be Exported in 2021

August 8, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare

China Announces Two Billion COVID-19 Vaccines to Be Exported in 2021—

Aug. 6 (EIRNS)–President Xi Jinping announced today that China will export two billion COVID-19 vaccines in 2021. The massive expansion of production capacity this year has allowed China to export between 600 to 750 million doses so far, while also applying over 1.7 billion doses within China. The track record of Sinovac and Sinopharm so far indicates that they will produce almost 5 billion doses this year, and Tao Lina, a vaccine expert in Shanghai confirms this. Otherwise, China is presently vaccinating their population at the rate of 17.9 million shots a day, which is seven times the rate of the European Union, and 30 times that of the United States.

President Xi sent a written message today to the International Forum on Covid-19 Vaccine Cooperation, hosted by China Central Television and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang-Yi. He described the vaccine as a “global public good,” and stressed common action on world health as part of building a community with a shared future for mankind. He recognized the problem with the resurgences of the coronavirus allowing for the proliferation of mutations and variant strains. Besides exporting vaccines, he described China’s work with countries to develop and produce vaccines, with joint production already begun in the UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Brazil, Turkey, Pakistan and Mexico — a new capacity of over 200 million doses, which needs further expansion.

Afghanistan: the Role of the Neighboring Countries in Development

August 6, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Afghanistan, Economic development updates, Finance, General updates, Pakistan, Uzbekistan

Afghanistan: the Role of the Neighboring Countries in Development—

Aug. 5, 2021 (EIRNS) – During a Schiller Institute conference July 31, Prof. Pino Arlacchi, the former head of the United Nations Office of Drug Control who negotiated near-elimination of Afghan opium production with the Taliban 20 years ago, noted that immediately neighboring countries should play a primary role in planning South Asian regional development to include Afghanistan, and in stopping drug traffic from that country. One country clearly taking the point for this kind of development is Uzbekistan, under President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

A July 31 article in EastAsiaForum.org by Nasriddinov Salokhiddin, a researcher at the Institute for International Security of Tokyo International University, calls the February 2021 conference with Pakistan and Afghanistan organized by Mirziyoyev, “the event of the century for Central Asia”, because it will connect landlocked Central Asian countries to the Indian Ocean through Afghanistan and Pakistan. The conference attendees decided on a 600-kilometer Tashkent-Mazar e-Sharif-Kabul-Peshawar railroad and requested $4.8 billion in World Bank funding for it, Apparently the railroad corridor project was planned from the first to include new electricity transmission lines through it.

Noting the criticism that surmounting the Hindu Kush Mountains will make the project very expensive, Salokhiddin wrote: “Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan filed an appeal for investment to international financial institutions, which [appeal] received support from the United States, China and Russia. Representatives of the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank also expressed their willingness to assist the project through technical consulting and financing. Such wide support for the project means that the source of investment is no longer a concern.” He did not give dates or details regarding these other nations’ and international institutions’ support. He did add that the route transits Afghanistan through regions and cities which are under relatively secure government control now.

The author wrote that freight traffic in Afghanistan was about 4 million tons for 2020 and had risen by 25%. “Estimates suggest that if implemented, the trans-Afghan railroad will increase annual volume of rail freight by 20 million tons.” Some economists in Uzbekistan have advocated a railroad corridor to Chabahar in Iran instead, as allegedly more secure. But, “To achieve its economic objectives, access to the ports of Karachi and Gwadar is Uzbekistan’s highest priority.” Full article is here.

China Welcomes Zepp-LaRouche’s China Petition

March 27, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, China, China SI activity, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga media coverage or interview, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Media coverage of our activity, Our initiatives (petitions, etc)

Beijing Welcomes Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s ‘Declaration of China Experts from All Over the World’

March 26 (EIRNS)—The Spokesperson’s Office of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released the statement following today:

The French Schiller Institute statement condemned the recent anti-China movement. Chinese Spokesperson Hua Chunying stated: “It reflects the rational and just voice of insightful people in the international community.”

At the regular press conference of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 26, a CCTV reporter from the main station asked: “On March 24, the Schiller Institute released on its website a ‘Declaration of China Experts from all Over the World,’ which was jointly signed by 34 dignitaries from 18 countries, including former politicians, diplomats and scholars. The statement condemned the recent international anti-China movement, and called on the West to acknowledge China’s development achievements and splendid culture, have cooperation rather than confrontation with China. What is China’s comment?”

Hua Chunying: “We have taken note of the above-mentioned statement. It represents the rational and just voice of visionary people in the world, condemns and rejects the crazy words and deeds of the western anti-China forces that wantonly attack, smear and even crafted rumors against China in disregard of facts.

“The signatories of the statement have either lived and worked in China, or traveled to China on a regular basis for long stays. They all have first-hand experience and objective observation of China. Many of them have witnessed the remarkable achievement China has scored since reform and opening up. They witnessed the journey where the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese government, with a people-centered approach, led 850 million Chinese people out of extreme poverty. More recently, they have seen how 1.4 billion Chinese people, united as one, defeated the COVID-19 epidemic. Their statement once again proves that seeing is believing.

“As a matter of fact, many foreign friends who have been living in or dealing with China for many years find that the closer they get to China, the more they will see that China in reality is far from, or even completely opposite to the image some Western media and politicians try to portray. I saw a lot of video clips uploaded by foreigners saying that they realized they were fooled by foreign media reports only after arriving in China and seeing the country as it is. China has always been open to the world. We welcome people from across the world to get closer to us and understand China. We hope certain individuals in the west will discard bias, return to rationality, liberate their thinking, seek truth from facts and view China from an objective perspective.”

Spokesperson’s Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Official release of China’s foreign policy
Authoritative interpretation of China’s position and attitude

Putin: Mobilize Science & Industry to Defeat COVID

March 26, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in COVID-19, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Russia

Putin’s Conference on Defeating COVID-19 by Outflanking the New Strains

Mar. 25 (EIRNS)–Russian President Vladimir Putin held a videoconference earlier this week on the scientific and industrial mobilization needed to expand COVID-19 vaccine production, and to attack the virus. By way of introduction, he said that their Sputnik V vaccine, now approved in 55 countries representing 1.4 billion people, would expand to 2.5 billion people shortly. He celebrated the latest contract with India for production of another 100 million doses, “the news of the day.” Now there are contracts for the production of 1.4 billion doses. For their own population, Russia is aiming for 139.6 million doses and, as of last week, have 40.2 million.

The Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov said that production is ramping up. April should see 17 million more doses. They also have manufacturing agreements in 10 countries. Further, their new EpiVacCorona vaccine is planned for 11 million doses by July. It is designed to be able to hit a wide array of variants. The Healthcare Minister Mikhail Murashko reported on a new version of Sputnik V that can be stored easily at non-frozen temperatures (36-46 degrees Fahrenheit), important for far-flung parts of Russia; and a new Sputnik Light, for trials on 12-17 year olds. The concern there was not-so-much about mortality but about possible and unknown long-term damage to children form COVID-19.

The chairman of the board of Pharstandard, Viktor Kharitonin, reported that their ramping up to 200-300 million doses per year involved recruiting Russian exile scientists back to Russia for the war against the virus: “Over 20 percent of our scientists returned from the EU, the United States and Israel at our invitation and are now helping us develop a modern pharmaceutical industry…”

Gamaleya director Alexander Gintsburg highlighted talks last week, headed by Sergei Razov, Russia’s ambassador to Italy, with Italy’s Spallanzani Institute — “a counterpart of ours” in being the national regulatory institute. They agreed to produce a “draft memorandum of cooperation” to work with Spallanzani’s key resource, “the largest collection of newly emerged and isolated strains of COVID-19 pathogens in Europe…” Plasma samples from people vaccinated with Sputnik V are to be tested for “the neutralizing activity of the serum…” Denis Logunov, Gamaleya deputy director, who actually developed the vaccine, explained that, as with the flu virus, we “examine sera screening from vaccinated patient’s reactions to new strains. I consider this very important… We must not miss the important moment when the virus, for one, gets out of control and the existing vaccines may become even potentially ineffective. In terms of science, I consider this prospect the most important.”

UN Security Council Unanimously Pushes for Afghan Political Solution

August 5, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, China, France, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Russia, United States, World war danger updates

UN Security Council Unanimously Pushes for Afghan Political Solution—

Aug. 4 (EIRNS)—In New York, the UN Security Council unanimously issued a press statement condemning deliberate attacks on civilians in Afghanistan and all instances of terrorism “in the strongest terms” on Aug. 3, while declaring its opposition to restoration of rule by the Taliban, reported The Associated Press. The council called on the Afghan government and the Taliban “to engage meaningfully in an inclusive, Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process in order to make urgent progress towards a political settlement and a ceasefire.” The council statement also expressed “deep concern” at the high levels of violence and reported serious human rights abuses in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s offensive. It urged an immediate reduction in violence.

It is noteworthy that the U.S., China and Russia (as well as the U.K. and France) all agreed with this perspective on Afghanistan.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani by phone yesterday to press for a political settlement and lecture Ghani on democracy and human rights.

Afghanistan Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar told TOLOnews in an Aug. 2 interview that the Taliban enjoys the support of foreign terrorists in Afghanistan. “The Taliban relies on the support of foreign terrorists and mainly aims to attack cities,” he said. “Afghanistan’s international allies hold the same opinion.”

“Two important encounters will take place in Doha (Qatar) in the coming days: One with our regional allies and the other with international allies in the format of the Extended Troika,” comprised of Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan, Atmar continued. “We are turning to the international community with a request to exert pressure on the Taliban so that this movement observes human rights. Up to now, the Taliban has been brutally assaulting civilians.”

On the ground, heavy fighting reportedly continues in both Herat in western Afghanistan and in the southern province of Helmand. Several airstrikes were reportedly launched by Afghan and U.S. air forces since Tuesday night (Aug. 3), according to security sources. The commander of the Army’s 215 Maiwand Corps, Gen. Sami Sadat, called on residents in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand, to evacuate their homes as the army was preparing for a large-scale operation to clear the city of the Taliban. However, as of the latest reports, the army had not made much progress beyond controlling government buildings.

China Media Cover Schiller Institute Petition Rebuking Demonization of China

March 26, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, China, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Media coverage of our activity, Our initiatives (petitions, etc)

Schiller Institute’s China Petition in Chinese Media

Mar.25 (EIRNS) — The Schiller Institute petition denouncing the attacks on China signed by 30 leading experts, was reported in the Chinese media. The China Global Television Network, published an article on the petition but did not name the signatories. Then China Central Television republished the CGTN article. This was followed by a report in CCTV on the French Schiller Institute’s French translation of the petition with a summary in Chinese. Below is the CGTN article in full. Also see links at the end.

China experts urge cooperation, not confrontation with China

The West should do better to respond to an offer of cooperation from China rather than seek confrontation, and find a common way to solve the crises challenging all of humanity, according to a declaration published on Tuesday by the Schiller Institute, a political and economic think tank based in Germany.

The declaration, which was signed by over 30 experts, including the institute’s founder and president Helga Zepp LaRouche, denounced what it said was an intensifying international campaign against China.

“For some time, an international anti-China campaign has escalated, where think tanks, mainstream media and strategic reports of all sorts paint a picture of China and its alleged intentions which is simply not true and is extremely dangerous. An enemy image is being projected that in the worst case leads to war,” it said.

All signatories to the declaration have had “direct experience with China, be it that we have lived or worked there, or from repeated travel over longer periods of time.”

Based on their experience and witnesses, they said the Chinese people are “fundamentally more optimistic about the future than the West” after the nation’s successful poverty eradication campaign. And “trust in government is substantially greater,” which is illustrated and strengthened by the effective way China brought COVID-19 under control.

The statement also said that China has been making progress in science and technology as well as innovation, urging the West to “do better to respond to the offer of cooperation, than seeking confrontation.”

Links to CGTN story.

Link to CCTV story.

Link to CCTV report on French Translation.

China Institutes More Stringent Measures To Combat New COVID Outbreaks

August 5, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in China, COVID-19, General updates, Healthcare, Healthcare

Aug. 4 (EIRNS)—China is experiencing a resurgence of COVID, particularly of the new delta variant, and is implementing more stringent measures to deal with it. Most seem to have developed through imported cases, at the airport in Nanjing and in the south Yunnan province at the Myanmar border. But the provinces of Zhejiang and Henan, where there has been major flooding recently, have also been hit with new cases. The city of Wuhan is also again in the process of conducting nucleic acid testing on its 11 million people in order to avoid a replay of the terrible 2020 outbreak.

The State Council announced on Aug. 3 that COVID-19 prevention and control would now be “the top priority” for local governments. “Airports, harbors and land borders should be closely guarded to prevent imported COVID-19 cases. International travelers and cargo should be strictly separated from spaces where local people can enter,” Sun Chunlan, a member of the Political Bureau said in her comments at the press conference announcing the new measures.

“People that are most prone to infection should be placed in quarantine immediately. Regional investigations targeting close contacts should be completed within 24 hours,” she said. Sun required nationwide scrutiny of in-hospital infection control measures. “Hospitals that fail to meet the standards should carry out rectification or even suspend operations,” she said. There are now four high-risk areas for the COVID outbreak and 150 medium-risk areas. The country has already distributed 1.7 billion doses of the vaccine.

28 Nations Participate in China’s Belt and Road Partnership on COVID Vaccines Cooperation

August 5, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, China, COVID-19, Economic development updates, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Healthcare, Healthcare, New Silk Road / BRI updates, Pakistan, Uzbekistan

August 3, 2021 (EIRNS)—On June 23 of this year, at the Asia and Pacific High-Level Conference on Belt and Road Cooperation, presided over by China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, 28 nations joined in launching the China Initiative for Belt and Road Partnership on Covid-19 Vaccine Cooperation. The statement announcing this initiative stressed that international cooperation and solidarity are key to fighting the pandemic, that “people and their lives” must be put first, and that no one is safe until everyone is safe. It emphasized that vaccines must be equitably distributed and that there must be “open, fair and non-discriminatory international cooperation on vaccines.”

A number of other recommendations for the BRI vaccine cooperation initiative included facilitating joint vaccine research, development and technological exchanges; promoting partnerships between vaccine producers and developing countries for joint vaccine production, to scale up global production; encouraging regional and multilateral development banks to provide more concessional financing to developing countries for their vaccine procurement and production; and “strengthening Belt and Road cooperation on connectivity to ensure cross-border flows of vaccines.”

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday, in less than two months the BRI vaccine initiative has yielded impressive results, reaching cooperative agreements with several of the initiative’s 28 co-sponsors on a total of 775 million doses of vaccines, including in the form of concentrates, of which 350 million doses have been delivered. In addition, Chinese companies have started joint production with four co-sponsors of this initiative, whose names were not specified, and are discussing joint production “with other interested countries.” In today’s foreign ministry press conference, spokesman Wang Wenbin reported that China has provided vaccine assistance to over 80 countries and vaccines to 40 countries, also reporting that China is collaborating with other developing nations to mass produce the vaccine. It was also announced today that the World Health Organization has granted emergency use authorization to China’s Sinovac vaccine. (The full initiative statement is detailed here.)

The 28 countries include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Fiji, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Lavrov and Wang Counter Geopolitical Games of the West

March 24, 2021by madeleine in China, General, Global Diplomacy, Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, struck out against U.S. policy against their countries, including its sanctions and geopolitical games, in a joint press conference in Guilin, Guangxi, during Lavrov’s official two-day visit to China.

“We reject zero-sum geopolitical games and reject unilateral illegitimate sanctions that our Western colleagues resort to more and more often,” Lavrov said in the joint press conference with Wang Yi today. “We noted the destructive nature of the United States’ intentions to undermine the UN-centered international legal architecture relying on military-political alliances of the Cold War era, and creating new closed alliances in the same vein.” Russia and China, however, will ensure that their bilateral relations are “safe and are not threatened by those states, which are unfriendly towards our countries.”

He denounced the West‘s claims that Russia and China are carrying out vaccine diplomacy.
“Our partners in the West are trying to portray Russia and China as some kind of adventurers in the field of so-called vaccine diplomacy. This is absolutely not true,” he said. He informed the media that Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on all countries that their vaccine policies must be guided solely by considerations of humanity and the interests of saving lives. “It is absolutely necessary for everyone, including our partners in the West, to remember that.”

Lavrov also declared Russian relations with the European Union are nonexistent: “There are no relations with the European Union as an organization. The entire infrastructure of these relations has been destroyed by unilateral decisions made by Brussels.”

He pointed out that “There are only a few European partner countries that have a desire to act based on their national interests.” And therefore, “Objectively, this led to cooperation between Russia and China developing faster than what is left of relations with the European countries.”
For his part, Foreign Minister and State Councilor Wang Yi also minced no words for the EU for imposing sanctions on China over alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang. “They [sanctions] will not receive the support of the international community, especially the so-called sanctions imposed on the basis of lies. I believe that all countries should oppose this,” Wang Yi said. “[Western powers] should know that the days when they can arbitrarily interfere in China’s internal affairs by making up stories and lies are long gone.”

Russia and China will work for the protection of the world order based on international law, Wang affirmed. “We should act as guarantors of justice in international affairs. China is ready to promote the international system established by the United Nations, protect the world order based on international law, and abide by universal values such as peace, development, justice, democracy, equality and freedom.”

Death by Starvation: 400,000 to Die in Ethiopia by Thanksgiving

August 2, 2021by Mary Jane Freeman in Agriculture, Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, World Food Program

Aug. 1 (EIRNS)–The UN warned on Saturday of “catastrophic” food shortages set to sweep world’s hunger hotspots over the next three months. Among the 23 hotspots are Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria. These worst-case locations have now progressed to starvation and death situations. “Hunger Hotspots,” issued jointly by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and their World Food Programme identified that in the August-November period “acute food insecurity is likely to further deteriorate.” Ethiopia is facing 401,000 people dying of starvation without an immediate intervention of humanitarian aid.

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