Li advocates global health governance

Premier Li Qiang highlighted on Tuesday the need to ensure that developing nations have equal and inclusive access to vaccines and push forward the modernization of global health governance.

During a meeting with Jose Manuel Barroso, chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, in Beijing, Li also stressed the importance of adhering to the principles of objectivity, fairness and professionalism, and opposed the politicization and stigmatization of issues concerning the containment and origin tracing of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has again demonstrated the crucial importance of enhancing global health governance, and it is important to promote the building of a global community of health for all and make joint efforts to protect the health of mankind, Li said.

The premier spoke positively about the role of the alliance in strengthening global health governance and its cooperation with China, saying that Beijing will continue as always to support its work.

China pledged $100 million in 2021 to the alliance's COVAX Advance Market Commitment, the global, multilateral response focused on equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for low- and middle-income economies. Ambassador Chen Xu, head of the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva, signed an agreement with Seth Berkley, the alliance's CEO, on Feb 11 donating $100 million to COVAX on behalf of China to promote vaccine access in developing countries.

China has also supplied more than 200 million doses of vaccines to COVAX, playing a constructive role in promoting vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.

The nation first became a donor to the alliance in 2015, with $25 million pledged in total to date toward its core work on routine immunization.

Barroso, who is also former president of the European Commission and former prime minister of Portugal, emphasized the importance of the alliance's partnership with China while commending China's significant contributions to combating COVID.

The vaccine alliance is willing to deepen cooperation with China to jointly promote the development of global public health, he said.

China is among the first countries to commit to making COVID vaccines a global public good, support waiving intellectual property rights on vaccine research and development, and start joint vaccine production with other developing countries.

Beijing had provided over 2.2 billion doses of COVID vaccines to over 120 countries and international organizations by the end of 2022, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.