China and Pakistan, the two notorious countries who more often than collude amongst themselves to create some kind of chaos in their neighborhood have been thick as thieves for long. However, Beijing has only been fleecing Pakistan for its own benefits and when it has come to delivering the much-hyped COVID-19 vaccine, Imran Khan and his poor country have been given a cold shoulder by their much-revered master, Xi Jinping.
According to news reports, Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to provide the vaccines as a “global public good”. He has signed deals with Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, the Philippines and Turkey, before showing the world the result of final testings. The omission of Pakistan from the list has come as a rude shocker to Islamabad which was hoping to be included in the first list of countries after providing its oblivious population as guinea-pig for Xi Jinping to test his vaccine on.
As reported by TFI in April, a major Chinese pharmaceutical company invited the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, to collaborate in conducting clinical trials of its newly developed inactivated vaccine for COVID-19 in Pakistan. In a memorandum sent to the NIH, the Chinese Sinopharm International Corp. is looking to conduct ‘clinical trials’ on ‘recruited participants’—in what it referred to as the brotherly country of Pakistan.
A video had gone viral on social media platforms back then where a Pakistani anchor was visibly elated about the developments—oblivious to the fact what clinical trials entail for the Pakistanis who will be used as ‘guinea pigs’ for the Chinese to experiment on.
BIG BREAKING!! EXCLUSIVE!!
China has developed COVID-19 vaccine and Pakistan is going to receive it pretty SOON making Pakistan one of the first few countries in the world to launch COVID-19 vaccine! NIH Exectuive Director Gen. Aamer Ikram confirms!! pic.twitter.com/wOEOrny403— Saadia Afzaal (@SaadiaAfzaal) April 22, 2020
Even though the letter clearly stated that the vaccine had not been developed yet and that these were just clinical trials, some frivolous Pakistani media channels assumed that the benevolent Chinese masters had developed a magic COVID-19 vaccine and that Pakistan was going to be one of the first beneficiaries.
These vaccines, without proper trials, were being tested on Pakistanis, and some experts had cast aspersions that the untested vaccine could potentially impair the speech of an individual, cause paralysis or even worse leave the individual in a vegetative state. Motivated by the incentive to turn the vaccine into a money-making business, China was only trying to race ahead in developing a Coronavirus vaccine, with Pakistan being a tool to achieve that goal.
However, when the time has actually come for China to deploy the vaccine, it has not deemed Pakistan worthy to receive the first batch of the medicines. Albeit China is gifting the vaccine to countries like Thailand, Brazil and even Turkey but not Pakistan. According to news reports, on Sunday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said 1.2 million doses of a vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac had arrived.
The Turkish Government also said in an official statement that it had ordered 50 million doses of the CoronaVac last week, and expected its first shipment this Friday. While the firm conducting clinical trials in Pakistan is still rumored to be in Phase-3, one would have expected Xi Jinping to be generous enough to grant the CoronaVac vaccine to Pakistan.
China is truly giving Pakistan colonial treatment and if Imran Khan and his minions still do not wake up from their deep slumbers and realize that Beijing does not see them as equals then the downward spiral of the failed state will continue.