2 billions this year and 4 billions next year. Main focus would be protein subunit vaccines that offer better efficacy rate, easier to produce and also less side effects than mRNA. Both Clove and Sinopharm are focusing on protein subunit vaccines.
Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)
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- Start date
They should also start testing covid-19 vaccines and other vaccines based on mRNA technique. It looks like mRNA vaccines are in general more effective than vaccines based on traditional methods. The Indians are trying to win the vaccine diplomacy.
I think Chinese media and government need to do a better job in explaining the situation. There are 3 clusters and the two Chinese ladies is only responsible for 1 cluster. The two Chinese ladies entered Cambodia from another country not China.
Chinese nationals in Cambodia encounter occasional discrimination since latest COVID-19 cluster outbreak
The latest COVID-19 cluster outbreak in Cambodia, which involves several confirmed Chinese patients in Phnom Penh, has led to increased prejudices and castigation against the Chinese community there. Although the exact origins linked to the virus’ resurgence remains unclear and local government has decried discrimination against the Chinese. This is according to Chinese nationals in Cambodia reached by the Global Times on Wednesday.
Cambodian health authority reported 58 more local cases on Thursday – nine Vietnamese, five Cambodian, one South Korean, one Singaporean, one Japanese national, with the rest being Chinese – all linked to , the Khmer Times reported on Thursday. The country has reported 195 COVID-19 patients since the community outbreak, most of the cases reported to be Chinese, it said.
This has pushed Chinese communities in Cambodia to the brink to some extent. Cases of Chinese being castigated or being ejected from public venues have happened occasionally since the outbreak, said a Chinese national surnamed Lu who lives in Phnom Penh.
It is believed that some Western forces are meddling in this pandemic and sowing discord between people in the two countries, Chinese international affairs observers pointed out.
China and Cambodia, as neighbors and important trade partners, have long maintained close ties, said Zhang Zhenjiang, an expert on Southeast Asia Overseas Chinese studies at Jinan University in South China’s Guangdong Province.
Anti-China forces politicize the pandemic and use it as a weapon to malign China, Zhang told the Global Times on Wednesday, saying that “such a shameful measure will eventually collapse of itself.”
Chinese communities affected
Some Cambodians blame the Chinese for the recent COVID-19 resurgence, as many cases in the current outbreak were found at a Chinese community in Phnom Penh, according to local Chinese residents.
There have been cases of Chinese nationals being banned from entering restaurants these days, Lu said.
Chinese communities in Cambodia, therefore, “have been keeping a low profile” to “stay away from troubles,” Lu told the Global Times.
“We seldom go out,” he said. “Many Chinese-owned restaurants and stores suspended their business to avoid possible rumors and attacks.”
There nonetheless have been no incidents of mass discrimination against Chinese nationals so far, as “the Cambodian government has been working on proper public opinion guidance,” Lu added. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday called for people to follow pandemic control protocols and not to discriminate against Chinese nationals, the Khmer Times reported that day.
In Phnom Penh, authorities have reportedly ordered the closure of all local schools for two weeks due to the virus’ resurgence. Many details of the cluster infections are yet to be revealed, nor is there an obvious inflection point in sight.
“The most important task now is to stop the further spread of the epidemic,” Zhang Zhenjiang said, calling for the Cambodian society and the local Chinese community to abandon prejudices and unite to complete the needed contact-tracing of the pandemic.
All the Chinese nationals in Cambodia reached by the Global Times said they disapprove of the behaviors of a few compatriots that violated Cambodia’s pandemic prevention rules. These rule-breakers are very few and can never represent the whole of the Chinese community in Cambodia, they noted.
“Our Chinese compatriots in Cambodia are generally very cautious about the pandemic,” Lu said. It was just a few Chinese nationals, most of whom had just arrived in Cambodia from a third country, who violated the local government’s pandemic control rules, which inadvertently negatively impacted the image of the local Chinese community, he explained.
“The Chinese community has contributed a lot in local COVID-19 prevention and control efforts,” said Zhang Wei, director of a Chinese travel agency based in Phnom Penh. Lots of Chinese-invested companies reportedly donated virus-fighting materials, including tens of thousands of urgently-needed masks during Cambodia’s darkest time in 2019, Zhang added.
Misrepresentation existed
Some lack of clarity over these cluster infections in local press reports or social media may breed misunderstanding and heighten animosity. On Twitter, many Cambodians questioned whether hotel security has the right to release those quarantined, and what kind of transportation they subsequently took to get to a faraway nightclub, etc. “The government has been vague on many details, which has led to further misunderstandings toward the local Chinese,” Lu said.
Also, although the rule-breakers are Chinese, they did not enter Cambodia from China, but from other countries, and had no close relationship with the local Chinese community, a fact which was not clarified, worsening the discrimination.
In the past few days, 47 COVID-19 infections among Chinese nationals living in Phnom Penh have been reported. Most people think this is a mass infection cluster, but there are actually three separate infection clusters, not all caused by the two Chinese nationals who escaped from the quarantine site for a nightclub. The three infection clusters also occurred at different times but were all reported around February 20, igniting mass discontent for the Chinese.
On February 18, the Cambodian government issued a sub-decree imposing stiffer fines for people caught defying COVID-19 quarantine rules.
“The incident of Chinese nationals breaking the anti-prevention rules and causing a cluster of infections was reported exactly two days later. This led the Cambodian public to believe that these Chinese had deliberately ignored the country's latest policy.” Lu explained that the infections related to the nightclub actually took place before February.
Zhang Wei noted that the current pandemic prevention and control measures in Cambodia are in an awkward situation of being “tight on the outside but loose on the inside.”
“In particular, the control of the quarantine points is extremely loose. Passengers from various countries, as well as Cambodian workers returning from other Southeast Asian countries, can enter and exit the quarantine hotel at will after arriving in Cambodia. Chinese nationals are not the majority of them,” Zhang Wei said.
He said that although Cambodian authorities have asked for the closure of KTVs and nightclubs, there are still some operators are defiantly sailing close to the wind.
Gyms and badminton courts, which are equally risky, are still open. Some locals don’t even wear masks in indoor badminton courts and gyms, Amy, a 30-year-old Chinese national who has been living in Siem Reap for 15 years, told the Global Times.
Local people have a basic awareness of pandemic prevention; however, it’s not high enough, she noted.
Western forces behind the scenes
The COVID-19 pandemic has long been utilized as a weapon by some Western anti-China forces in attacking China, and to sow discord between China and its international allies, international relations scholars told the Global Times.
The latest community cluster in Cambodia, has unfortunately also become an opportunity for anti-China forces to create and tarnish China’s reputation, maliciously stirring up xenophobic sentiment toward China among the Cambodian public, said Zhang Zhenjiang.
A few Western media outlets, including some in France and Canada, have openly bolstered arguments such as “the Chinese have ruined Cambodia’s pandemic prevention,” the Global Times found. They appear eager to conduct a smear campaign against China, with careless rhetoric urging that the Chinese community in Cambodia should indeed be blamed for the outbreak even though contact tracing work is still underway.
On social media, there are also a few Twitter accounts “seizing the opportunity” presented by Cambodia’s pandemic to tarnish Sino-Cambodia relationship or defame China’s COVID-19 response. Some accounts baselessly claimed that China sells fake COVID-19 (nucleic acid testing) report, while others disparaged Cambodia as “China’s puppet” in the fight against the virus.
The Global Times noticed that many of these Twitter accounts have Western-style names and profile photos of what appears to be Caucasians, although their real nationalities are not shown on the site.
For a long time, some Western politicians and media, have prejudicially directly attacked China and by extension, Sino-Cambodian relations through so-called “facts” cleverly packaged as “hard-hitting news”, said Zhang Zhenjiang.
Their continual demonization of China with relation to the global pandemic appears to be effective, as “there are still a bunch of Westerners in Siem Reap insisting that ‘the Chinese brought the virus,’” Amy said. “They blame us Chinese nationals for almost anything.”
The Chinese community in Cambodia is actually the group of people who wore masks, carried out disinfection, and stocked up anti-pandemic materials at the earliest, said Amy. “We pay attention to the pandemic very seriously,” she added.
Local Chinese residents said that over the years, Chinese people’s contributions to the Cambodian economy have been notable to all Cambodians. “The two peoples have had an abiding friendship, and always will,” Lu told the Global Times.
Chinese nationals in Cambodia encounter occasional discrimination since latest COVID-19 cluster outbreak
The latest COVID-19 cluster outbreak in Cambodia, which involves several confirmed Chinese patients in Phnom Penh, has led to increased prejudices and castigation against the Chinese community there. Although the exact origins linked to the virus’ resurgence remains unclear and local government has decried discrimination against the Chinese. This is according to Chinese nationals in Cambodia reached by the Global Times on Wednesday.
Cambodian health authority reported 58 more local cases on Thursday – nine Vietnamese, five Cambodian, one South Korean, one Singaporean, one Japanese national, with the rest being Chinese – all linked to , the Khmer Times reported on Thursday. The country has reported 195 COVID-19 patients since the community outbreak, most of the cases reported to be Chinese, it said.
This has pushed Chinese communities in Cambodia to the brink to some extent. Cases of Chinese being castigated or being ejected from public venues have happened occasionally since the outbreak, said a Chinese national surnamed Lu who lives in Phnom Penh.
It is believed that some Western forces are meddling in this pandemic and sowing discord between people in the two countries, Chinese international affairs observers pointed out.
China and Cambodia, as neighbors and important trade partners, have long maintained close ties, said Zhang Zhenjiang, an expert on Southeast Asia Overseas Chinese studies at Jinan University in South China’s Guangdong Province.
Anti-China forces politicize the pandemic and use it as a weapon to malign China, Zhang told the Global Times on Wednesday, saying that “such a shameful measure will eventually collapse of itself.”
Chinese communities affected
Some Cambodians blame the Chinese for the recent COVID-19 resurgence, as many cases in the current outbreak were found at a Chinese community in Phnom Penh, according to local Chinese residents.
There have been cases of Chinese nationals being banned from entering restaurants these days, Lu said.
Chinese communities in Cambodia, therefore, “have been keeping a low profile” to “stay away from troubles,” Lu told the Global Times.
“We seldom go out,” he said. “Many Chinese-owned restaurants and stores suspended their business to avoid possible rumors and attacks.”
There nonetheless have been no incidents of mass discrimination against Chinese nationals so far, as “the Cambodian government has been working on proper public opinion guidance,” Lu added. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday called for people to follow pandemic control protocols and not to discriminate against Chinese nationals, the Khmer Times reported that day.
In Phnom Penh, authorities have reportedly ordered the closure of all local schools for two weeks due to the virus’ resurgence. Many details of the cluster infections are yet to be revealed, nor is there an obvious inflection point in sight.
“The most important task now is to stop the further spread of the epidemic,” Zhang Zhenjiang said, calling for the Cambodian society and the local Chinese community to abandon prejudices and unite to complete the needed contact-tracing of the pandemic.
All the Chinese nationals in Cambodia reached by the Global Times said they disapprove of the behaviors of a few compatriots that violated Cambodia’s pandemic prevention rules. These rule-breakers are very few and can never represent the whole of the Chinese community in Cambodia, they noted.
“Our Chinese compatriots in Cambodia are generally very cautious about the pandemic,” Lu said. It was just a few Chinese nationals, most of whom had just arrived in Cambodia from a third country, who violated the local government’s pandemic control rules, which inadvertently negatively impacted the image of the local Chinese community, he explained.
“The Chinese community has contributed a lot in local COVID-19 prevention and control efforts,” said Zhang Wei, director of a Chinese travel agency based in Phnom Penh. Lots of Chinese-invested companies reportedly donated virus-fighting materials, including tens of thousands of urgently-needed masks during Cambodia’s darkest time in 2019, Zhang added.
Misrepresentation existed
Some lack of clarity over these cluster infections in local press reports or social media may breed misunderstanding and heighten animosity. On Twitter, many Cambodians questioned whether hotel security has the right to release those quarantined, and what kind of transportation they subsequently took to get to a faraway nightclub, etc. “The government has been vague on many details, which has led to further misunderstandings toward the local Chinese,” Lu said.
Also, although the rule-breakers are Chinese, they did not enter Cambodia from China, but from other countries, and had no close relationship with the local Chinese community, a fact which was not clarified, worsening the discrimination.
In the past few days, 47 COVID-19 infections among Chinese nationals living in Phnom Penh have been reported. Most people think this is a mass infection cluster, but there are actually three separate infection clusters, not all caused by the two Chinese nationals who escaped from the quarantine site for a nightclub. The three infection clusters also occurred at different times but were all reported around February 20, igniting mass discontent for the Chinese.
On February 18, the Cambodian government issued a sub-decree imposing stiffer fines for people caught defying COVID-19 quarantine rules.
“The incident of Chinese nationals breaking the anti-prevention rules and causing a cluster of infections was reported exactly two days later. This led the Cambodian public to believe that these Chinese had deliberately ignored the country's latest policy.” Lu explained that the infections related to the nightclub actually took place before February.
Zhang Wei noted that the current pandemic prevention and control measures in Cambodia are in an awkward situation of being “tight on the outside but loose on the inside.”
“In particular, the control of the quarantine points is extremely loose. Passengers from various countries, as well as Cambodian workers returning from other Southeast Asian countries, can enter and exit the quarantine hotel at will after arriving in Cambodia. Chinese nationals are not the majority of them,” Zhang Wei said.
He said that although Cambodian authorities have asked for the closure of KTVs and nightclubs, there are still some operators are defiantly sailing close to the wind.
Gyms and badminton courts, which are equally risky, are still open. Some locals don’t even wear masks in indoor badminton courts and gyms, Amy, a 30-year-old Chinese national who has been living in Siem Reap for 15 years, told the Global Times.
Local people have a basic awareness of pandemic prevention; however, it’s not high enough, she noted.
Western forces behind the scenes
The COVID-19 pandemic has long been utilized as a weapon by some Western anti-China forces in attacking China, and to sow discord between China and its international allies, international relations scholars told the Global Times.
The latest community cluster in Cambodia, has unfortunately also become an opportunity for anti-China forces to create and tarnish China’s reputation, maliciously stirring up xenophobic sentiment toward China among the Cambodian public, said Zhang Zhenjiang.
A few Western media outlets, including some in France and Canada, have openly bolstered arguments such as “the Chinese have ruined Cambodia’s pandemic prevention,” the Global Times found. They appear eager to conduct a smear campaign against China, with careless rhetoric urging that the Chinese community in Cambodia should indeed be blamed for the outbreak even though contact tracing work is still underway.
On social media, there are also a few Twitter accounts “seizing the opportunity” presented by Cambodia’s pandemic to tarnish Sino-Cambodia relationship or defame China’s COVID-19 response. Some accounts baselessly claimed that China sells fake COVID-19 (nucleic acid testing) report, while others disparaged Cambodia as “China’s puppet” in the fight against the virus.
The Global Times noticed that many of these Twitter accounts have Western-style names and profile photos of what appears to be Caucasians, although their real nationalities are not shown on the site.
For a long time, some Western politicians and media, have prejudicially directly attacked China and by extension, Sino-Cambodian relations through so-called “facts” cleverly packaged as “hard-hitting news”, said Zhang Zhenjiang.
Their continual demonization of China with relation to the global pandemic appears to be effective, as “there are still a bunch of Westerners in Siem Reap insisting that ‘the Chinese brought the virus,’” Amy said. “They blame us Chinese nationals for almost anything.”
The Chinese community in Cambodia is actually the group of people who wore masks, carried out disinfection, and stocked up anti-pandemic materials at the earliest, said Amy. “We pay attention to the pandemic very seriously,” she added.
Local Chinese residents said that over the years, Chinese people’s contributions to the Cambodian economy have been notable to all Cambodians. “The two peoples have had an abiding friendship, and always will,” Lu told the Global Times.
There already is a Chinese company working on mRNA. We don't know if mRNA vaccines really have better efficacy rate than other vaccines without side by side comparison. It is premature to claim mRNA has better efficacy just base upon trial results since these trials are conducted in different standards and environment.
There are always advantages and disadvantages for each type of vaccines. Inactivated vaccines claim to be good at being effective against mutation and have the least side effects but the downside is difficult to mass produce. Adenovirus vector vaccines claims to be easy to mass produce and develop but the down side is it might not be able to be effective if the vaccines need to be used yearly and might be less effective on mutation for example AstraZeneca. mRNA claims to be easy to mass produce, develop but the downside is side effects and logistics and also mutation issue. protein subunit vaccines claim to be easy to mass produce and less side effects but it might require multiple doses and more difficult to develop.
I think China chooses inactivated vaccines it is due to the fact that China has many special laboratory facilities to grow the virus safely. It is relatively safe and has less side effects and more likely to be effective against mutation.
As for vaccine diplomacy, it doesn't really matter. It is not a race for who is providing the most vaccines but a race to be able to provide vaccines when the Western powers are hoarding vaccines and not sharing.
SteelBird
Colonel
Vietnam has had a few scandal regarding purchasing anti-covid equipment; like up price about 10 times the original price of ventilation equipment. When the country is in disaster, it's time for bureaucracy to make money.
The paragraph below was re-written by journalist, not original word of the spokeswoman.
SteelBird
Colonel
@KYli What makes things worse is the opposition members always make use of each outbreak to create hatred amount people. We did experienced three local outbreak. Each one makes government and citizens nervous. As I could recall, the first one being Nov 3, 2020 caused by a Hungarian diplomat who visited Cambodia. The outbreak declared clear after about a week. The second one being Nov 28, 2020 caused a high rank government official's family member coming from abroad. As we wasn't sure which family member of that official who brought the virus back to the country. Rumors said that official use his power for his family member to avoid being quarantined after coming back from abroad and called for the blame to that official's family. Now, the third outbreak and most serious one, the Feb 20, 2021. Most infection are Chinese. Some Chinese concentrated residential areas are under lockdown. Chinese (mainlander) are like ghost one the streets. We who have good relationship with the Chinese people as we are in some Chinese association also avoid meeting them face-to-face. Not because of discrimination but we don't know where they go, who they meet in the past. By the way, schools are closed on each outbreak.
SteelBird
Colonel
I know this guy, he was my wife's previous manager at a Chinese news. In the past few days there were sms being sent from phone to phone that advertise for Sinopharm vaccine being inoculated for a cost of US$120. Then the guy (Angkor Today news-outlet) used the sms as his source of news to report that the Cambodian government officials use Chinese donated vaccines to sell at high price. The Chinese embassy has declared this is a fraud. No Chinese vaccine leaks outside government's vaccination programe.Chinese news-outlet owner deported (from Cambodia)
It is fine to be cautious. I just want the Chinese media and the Chinese community to be more proactive when dealing with this kind of situation. It is much easier for spreading hatred than earning goodwill. Fighting fake news and rumors require a quick response to dispel the misinformation.