China's health diplomacy during Covid-19: the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in action

Abstract

International cooperation in the health sector has been a firm component of Chin's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for over five years. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chinese leadership has been promoting this aspect of the initiative ("health silk road") as essential to building a "global community of common destiny". The pandemic has revealed the strengths of the BRI and the way it functions. China’s health diplomacy is farsighted and strategic. Beijing has been linking measures to com­bat the Covid-19 pandemic in aid recipient countries with the prospect of post-pandemic cooperation within the BRI framework. Above all, Beijing wants to be per­ceived internationally as a "responsible great power". The West’s often narrow focus on the qualitative defects of Chinese aid fails to recognise that, in the absence of traditional aid donors, Beijing has supported many third countries effectively and extensively. To counter China's increasing influence in regions that are strategically important for Germany and Europe, greater sensitivity is needed to the geopolitical implications of the pandemic, as well as specific Euro­pean proposals for third countries for the post-pandemic period. In parallel with more commitment at the multilateral level (for instance within the World Health Organisation, WHO), other options include strengthening bilateral initiatives (e.g. via regional EU+x formats) and coordination with the new US government under Joe Biden. (author's abstract)