China, Africa stand together in fighting Covid-19 with sincerity

WHEN the chartered plane carrying Zimbabwe’s first Covid-19 vaccine doses touched down at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on February 15, tears welled up my eyes.

I became so emotional, not because the vaccines came from my motherland, China, but because I felt so relieved and excited for Zimbabweans who finally got the access to the life-saving vaccines and could have an extra protection against the coronavirus.

And as a foreigner working and living in Zimbabwe, I do hope to see everything go back to normal in this lovely country as soon as possible and vaccination can make this hope come true.

But it’s not easy to get vaccines when countries across the world are scrambling for the jabs, and especially when there is unfairness and inequality in vaccine distribution.

While rich countries have stockpiled doses enough to vaccinate all their citizens more than one time, some poor countries can hardly vaccinate even 10 percent of their populations.

Contrary to what many Western powers are doing, China has made a commitment to making its COVID-19 vaccines global public goods and promoted equitable vaccine distribution, aiming to provide accessible, affordable and quality vaccines to developing countries such as Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe was among the first African countries that received China-donated COVID-19 vaccines. And thanks to the timely arrival of the vaccines, it became one of the first African countries to roll out a nationwide vaccination drive.

With the arrival of the second shipment of vaccines from China, both donations and exports, the country was able accelerate and expand its vaccination campaign. As of March 29, over 70 000 people in Zimbabwe have been inoculated. What good news!

Meanwhile, quite a number of other African countries including Namibia,

Mozambique, Angola, the Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone have also launched COVID-19 vaccinations using Chinese vaccines, which helped them avoid being left behind.

Mutual support in the pandemic has again proved the time-honoured friendship and brotherhood between China and Africa who have together gone through thick and thin over the decades.

In his first visit to Africa after taking office, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests for developing China-Africa relations.

They have been guiding China-Africa ties to yield new fruits in the new era.

During my past three years working as a correspondent in Africa, I witnessed the rising number of infrastructure projects in Africa built with Chinese assistance the Kariba South Hydro Power Expansion project here in Zimbabwe, the Maputo-Katembe Bridge in Mozambique and the Multisports Complex in Mauritius, just to name a few.

I also covered quite a number of cultural exchange programmes, feeling how the hearts of Chinese and African people

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are getting closer. The outbreak of Covid19 has nearly brought the world to a halt, but it couldn’t stop our help and support for each other.

In the toughest days of China’s fight against the pandemic, Zimbabwe pledged its firm support for us. The story of a Zimbabwean student volunteering to help disinfect a train station in China’s Guangxi during the 2020 Spring Festival travel rush, touched lots of Chinese people, including me.

Later, when Zimbabwe was under a grave threat of the virus, China provided medical supplies without delay, and sent medical experts to help with Zimbabwe’s prevention and control efforts on the ground, while the Chinese community in Zimbabwe helped to upgrade designated Covid-19 treatment facilities.

All these are only a few of the stories that reflect the high degree of solidarity between the two sides in the fight against the disease and illustrate the very essence of the sincerity, real results, amity and good faith principle, under the guidance of which I believe we will finally defeat the virus together and build a community with a shared future for mankind. ◆ Gao Junya is a Harare-based corre

spondent for China Media Group.