China’s People’s Liberation Army is allegedly providing foreign armies with vaccine doses. According to recent reports, the PLA has donated doses to Zimbabwe’s armed forces, a country in which only 18% of the population is fully vaccinated. In The Phillippines, the majority of service members are now vaccinated due to a sizeable donation from China. In Ethiopia, where the Biden administration is beginning to enforce new sanctions due to atrocities committed against the Tigray rebels, the PLA delivered 300,000 vaccines to government troops.
The PLA has rapidly expanded its vaccine donations program across four continents, completing more than 30 deliveries to roughly two dozen different countries. Many of the recipients are key players in Xi Jinping’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. China has disclosed the military shipments of vaccine doses, which are manufactured by Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm and has stated that the deliveries consist of hundreds of thousands of doses. The PLA has also offered additional military aid, such as medical training and scholarship offers for senior officers to study in Chinese military schools.
Read More: China’s Army Furnishes Foreign Militaries With Covid-19 Vaccines
