China organises charter flights to evacuate nationals in Ukraine amid Russian invasion (SCMP/AFP)
2022-02-25
China Rejects U.S. Suggestion It Was 'Complicit' in Ukraine Invasion (Caixin)
2022-02-25
China's Foreign Ministry rejected a U.S. State Department suggestion that Beijing acted in "complicit support" of Russia's Ukraine operation and said Washington is in "no position" to educate China on state sovereignty and territorial integrity. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, told reporters Thursday during a regular press conference that as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and an independent major power, Russia is fully capable of acting on its own judgment and in its own national interest. "The U.S. side suggests that Russia acted with complicit Chinese support," Hua said. "I don't believe Russia would be too pleased to hear that." On Wednesday she called the U.S. a "culprit" in the Ukraine crisis. Hua's latest comment was in response to U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price who repeatedly suggested Wednesday in a press briefing in Washington that China should use its "considerable influence" over Russia to prevent the escalation of the Ukraine crisis. Price said China has "an obligation to use any influence it has with the Russian Federation to urge, to incentivize, to advocate for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to back down, for the Russian Federation to de-escalate." Price also referred to China's position on what he described as the "inviolable, sacrosanct" principle of respecting state sovereignty and territorial integrity. "Whether they are doing that, you'll have to ask them," Price said. Price also said the U.S. believed that Russia and China together appeared to be developing a "profoundly illiberal" world order instead of a rules-based international system through their "growing partnership," a trend that he said brought the U.S. "concern." In Beijing, Hua responded that "the U.S. is in no position to tell China off" about respecting state sovereignty. She said that "during its nearly 250 years of history, there were only 20 years when it [the U.S.] was not conducting military operations overseas." Hua said China-Russia relations are based on the foundation of "non-alliance, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party," which differs from the practice of the U.S., which is "ganging up to form small cliques and pursuing bloc politics to create confrontation and division based on ideology." On the same day, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov as Moscow's military operation in Eastern Ukraine was underway. Russian military forces launched attacks from land, sea and air, aiming to "demilitarize" the eastern European country, Russia said. China issued safety warnings to Chinese nationals in Ukraine to stay alert and avoid panic while China prepares to evacuate citizens by charted flights. Wang told Lavrov that China always respects all countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity. "At the same time, we also see a complex and unique historical context on the Ukraine issue and understand Russia's legitimate concerns on security issues," Wang said, according to a Foreign Ministry statement. But Wang also said that "a balanced, effective and sustained European security mechanism should be finally formed through dialogue and negotiation." Wang's two-point emphasis reflects China's consistent positions on the Ukraine crisis. The current close coordination between Beijing and Moscow has been years in the making as the two sides make efforts to upgrade their partnership. In June 2016, President Xi Jinping and Putin signed the first bilateral joint statement in Beijing on strengthening global strategic stability. The statement said: "Some countries and military-political alliances seek decisive advantage in military and relevant technology to serve their own interests through use or threat to use force in international affairs." The two leaders voiced concerns over the "unilateral deployment of anti-missile systems all over the world," referring to the U.S. deployment of the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense system in Europe and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in northeast Asia, which Russia and China have long opposed. In June 2019, the two nuclear powers signed a second joint statement on safeguarding global strategic stability, carrying the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination into a new era. The two sides further expanded bilateral military cooperation in November last year, when both defense ministers signed a road map for closer military ties and stepped-up military exercises and joint patrols in response to increasingly frequent U.S. strategic bomber flights near both countries' borders. Most recently, Xi hosted Putin in early February in Beijing for the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics. The two sides signed a 5,000-word joint statement to consolidate the bilateral partnership. "Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions, intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose color revolutions, and will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas," the statement said.
Why China firmly opposes economic sanctions against Russia (GT)
2022-02-24
China's Horn of Africa envoy advances Beijing's push for peace in strategic and complex region (SCMP)
2022-02-24
China urges US to end poisonous legacy left by Trump after 'China Initiative' is dropped (GT)
2022-02-24
China must apologise for temporarily detaining embassy employee: Japan (SCMP)
2022-02-23
Evidence of US monitoring 45 countries, regions exposed by Chinese cybersecurity experts for the 1st time (GT)
2022-02-23
Chinese FM holds phone conversation with U.S. secretary of state (Xinhua)
2022-02-22
China's trade disputes with Australia, US and Japan push Beijing to alter course and plan accordingly (China Daily)
2022-02-22
Chinese-built Ethiopia-Djibouti railway boosts regional integration (Xinhua)
2022-02-22
China, Egypt donate 500,000 doses of vaccines to Palestine (Xinhua)
2022-02-22
China hopes rise for Ethiopia after US pulls duty-free export deal over Tigray atrocities (SCMP)
2022-02-21
Chinese FM Wang Yi calls for diplomatic solution, not hyping war over Ukraine issue (GT)
2022-02-20
^ top ^ |
|
China's chained woman scandal: public anger persists as investigations, censorship 'raise more questions' (SCMP)
2022-02-25
SPP pledges to protect online identities, privacy (China Daily)
2022-02-24
"Two sessions" hot topic leads to better protection of workers' rights (Xinhua)
2022-02-23
Could Pfizer's Drug Paxlovid Change China's Covid Policy? (Caixin)
2022-02-23
China's approval for the import of Pfizer's new Covid-19 drug surprised many. The National Medical Products Administration's (NMPA) conditional approval for the Paxlovid came with unprecedented haste, especially given how bearish the country has been on foreign-made Covid-19 treatments. The green light came on Feb. 12, barely two months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration signed off on it. The news stirred up questions about the country's strict Covid policy and led to a surge in the prices of once sluggish coronavirus drug concept stocks. Stock investors have since turned bullish on Chinese companies working on similar products as well as drug ingredient producers — regardless of whether they have a clear connection to Paxlovid. Pfizer's new Covid treatment is designed to be taken at the onset of symptoms to prevent severe illness and death. Administered as three pills taken twice daily for five days, it is easy to store and transport, and can be manufactured cheaply at scale — provided the supply of necessary chemicals is guaranteed. Multiple companies have been rushing to produce similar drugs. Pfizer Inc. released data from human trials of Paxlovid in November. The drug lowered hospitalization and death rates by 89% in patients who took it within five days of the onset of the illness, as compared to those who took a placebo, the company said. The evidence presented by Pfizer was compelling enough for both the FDA and NMPA to grant it conditional approval, but the peer-reviewed findings and safety data have since been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Paxlovid appears to be far better than a competing Covid drug, Merck and Co.'s molnupiravir, making Pfizer's product the most effective Covid-19 pill on the market. The NMPA and Pfizer did not offer further information about the approval, such as an estimate of how Paxlovid will be priced in China and whether it will be subsidized by the public insurance system. As analysts turn over the policy implications, some are asking whether the drug's quick approval is a sign that China might be preparing to relax its strict zero-Covid policy. The country is not experiencing anywhere near the number of cases that most other nations are suffering, leaving little apparent need to rush the approval of a foreign Covid treatment. Nevertheless, public health experts say antiviral treatments — which are less likely to be frustrated by viral mutation than vaccines and antibody therapies — will be key to saving lives and reopening economies as the virus becomes endemic in many parts of the world. The firms behind them are expected to make bank. Pfizer estimates that Paxlovid will generate $22 billion in sales in 2022, while Merck projects revenue of $5 billion to $6 billion from sales of molnupiravir. China's approval of Paxlovid came as a surprise because it has shunned other foreign Covid vaccines and treatments. In the most high-profile example, the NMPA approved the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine "BNT162b2," developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, for clinical trials in November 2020. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd., which was authorized to run the trials in China and to ultimately distribute the shots, indicated in mid-2021 that the NMPA's expert panel had OK'd "BNT162b2." Eight months later, it continues to languish. While Covid-19 vaccines are taken to prepare a person for exposure to the virus, drugs like Paxlovid are used to treat those who are already sick and prevent them from getting much worse and dying. China has reported fewer than 25,000 cases since May 2020 — after its initial wave of Covid — and the number of severe cases has hovered at around 7%, according to officials from the State Council's Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism at a press conference in January. No deaths from the disease have been reported in China for more than a year. The approval has some wondering whether the drug will help the country to open its borders, which have been closed since early 2020. Others speculate the drug was approved for more targeted use, such as to reduce the impact of cross-border transmission at large international events. Multiple independent sources have played down those theories, telling Caixin that Paxlovid was not approved to ensure a "short-term special supply," but was approved after a comprehensive review of the domestic Covid landscape, and that it's no clear sign of a change in border restrictions. One source close to regulators said that people were reading way too much into Paxlovid's approval. "The approval of a foreign drug is nothing unusual," the source said. "The state needs a complete set of solutions including vaccines, intermediate products and pills, even if the 'national border' remains closed." Sheng Ding, dean of Tsinghua University's School of Pharmaceutical Sciences and director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed Global Health Drug Research and Development Center, said that Paxlovid's approval does not mean that the national border will soon open. "In order for Covid pills to contain the spread of the virus, we must get healthy people vaccinated or achieve herd immunity through acquired infection," Ding said. "China is yet to meet these conditions." There is still a lack of real-world data on Paxlovid's effectiveness, among other limitations. Pfizer last month reported that in test tube studies it maintains a similar level of effectiveness against the highly infectious Omicron strain, and the company has suggested mutant strains are unlikely to evade it in the same way as treatments that target the Covid-19 spike protein, because it uses a different mechanism. The combination therapy combines two drugs — Pfizer's own antiviral nirmatrelvir, and ritonavir, which is used to treat HIV. Generally, combined drugs have a greater chance of interfering with other medication a patient might also be taking, but there is specific issue with Paxlovid. Because ritonavir suppresses a key liver enzyme that would otherwise interfere with the effectiveness of nirmatrelvir, Paxlovid can't be taken by some people on certain other medication, according to treatment guidelines published by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. Furthermore, those who go undiagnosed early on in the course of infection, when antivirals are most effective, are less likely to experience its benefits. In September, Pfizer got approval to conduct clinical trials to see how effective Paxlovid is at preventing infection in the family members of confirmed Covid patients. Tsinghua's Deng pointed out that like other antivirals, pills like Paxlovid can also be used to prevent infection after exposure, and high-risk groups can reduce the risk of infection through long-term use. A host of countries besides China have already approved Paxlovid, with the pace of its development exceeding the scientific community's expectations. That has raised familiar questions about who might actually get it and when. In November 2021, Pfizer announced an agreement with the U.S. government to supply 10 million courses of Paxlovid for $5.29 billion in total. In January, the firm said it would provide an additional 10 million courses to the U.S. government, with the first 10 million to be delivered at the end of June, and the rest by the end of September. At the end of last December, Pfizer indicated that it would increase its global production capacity to an estimated 120 million courses by the end of this year. That month, Pfizer signed a voluntary license agreement with the Medicines Patent Pool to provide sufficiently cheap Paxlovid generics to 95 low- and middle-income countries, where about 53% of the world's population reside, excluding China. The U.S. government has estimated the procurement price of a five-day course of Paxlovid treatment at $530, equivalent to about 3,360 yuan. As for China's own development of a pill for treating Covid-19, most efforts are still in the preclinical phase. One exception is Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co. Ltd.'s VV116. The company is preparing to begin human trials on the drug in several places around the world. Junshi Biosciences has already obtained emergency use authorization for the drug in Uzbekistan.
China's No.1 central document focuses on food security, rural vitalization (GT)
2022-02-22
China starts campaign to strengthen protection for cultural relics (SCMP)
2022-02-22
Top anti-corruption body calls for officials to draw lesson from Zhou Jiangyong's case (GT)
2022-02-22
China releases 5-year plan for elderly care services (Xinhua)
2022-02-21
China population: Beijing adds fertility services to insurance coverage to aid slowing birth rate (SCMP/Reuters)
2022-02-21
China sees COVID-19 surges caused by multiple, 'invisible' sources of infection (GT)
2022-02-21
China to pilot commercial endowment insurance nationwide (Xinhua)
2022-02-21
^ top ^ |
