Why is China keeping quiet about its vaccine programme?

While Britain is the first country in the world to approve a vaccine, it is not the first to start vaccinating people. A million people in China have already been inoculated with Sinopharm and Sinovac jabs. The vaccines, however, have not completed phase three trials, which assess potential side effects. In other words, they have not yet been granted regulatory approval. Could this be the reason that Beijing – never usually shy when it comes to good news – is keeping quiet?

The vaccinations first started in July, when a legal provision for ‘emergency vaccinations’, based on the WHO’s response to Ebola, was introduced. Frontline workers in health, transport and retail – and those who plan to travel abroad for work – were the first to be offered jabs. Foreign travel may not be what the WHO had in mind as an emergency, but the Chinese government’s thinking is simple: while China declares itself Covid-free, the rest of the world is still in a virus nightmare (an impression aided by state media’s avid coverage).