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Guatemalan president says no interest in China’s vaccines

蘋果日報 2021/06/03 17:22


Guatemala has no interest in sourcing vaccines from China, President Alejandro Giammattei told Reuters in an exclusive interview.
The 65-year-old leader cited the low effectiveness of Chinese vaccines. Out of loyalty to Taiwan, the Giammattei administration also would not seek to establish relations with Beijing, which views Taiwan as part of its country under the “One China” principle.
The Central American country is one of 15 diplomatic allies of Taiwan, which is increasingly isolated by Beijing on the global stage.
Giammattei’s remarks came as Beijing seeks to improve its global image and recruit new allies through vaccine diplomacy, selling COVID-19 jabs or offering them for free to more than 80 countries across the world. His stance also marks a rare departure from the general consensus as few countries recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty due to pressure from China.
Giammattei admitted the administration is also seeking vaccine supplies from the United States. “It looks like there will be help,” he told Reuters, though he did not know how many doses and when they would be provided.
Honduras, another ally of Taiwan, announced in May it would purchase Chinese vaccines through El Salvador, which has severed ties with Taiwan in 2018. In a diplomatic shift, President Juan Orlando Hernandez offered to open a trade office in China to acquire more vaccines and built a “diplomatic bridge” as China suggested.
Carlos Alberto Madero, Honduras’s chief cabinet co-ordinator, said the country has not received any vaccine from the U.S. despite seeking help from Washington. Access to vaccines was “much more urgent than anything else,” he told the Financial Times last month.
“This puts us in a very difficult situation,” Madero said. “The Honduran people start to see that China is helping its allies and we start to ask ourselves why ours are not helping us.” In response, the Biden administration announced plans to send COVID-19 jabs in priority to Latin America over concerns of diplomatic shift.
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