Showtime for the West, suffering for the rest: China Daily editorial

It has become the norm for Western countries to portray China's rise as a threat to the rest of the world. Yet what China has done over the past two years to help other countries in their fight against the novel coronavirus shows how false their cries of alarm are.

By early November, China had provided more than 1.7 billion doses of vaccines to the world, benefitting more than 110 countries and international organizations. It aims to provide 2 billion doses by the end of the year.

China has also supplied over 70 million doses of vaccines to COVAX, and donated $100 million to the World Health Organization plan. It has co-launched the Belt and Road vaccine cooperation partnership initiative with 28 countries, and has organized joint COVID-19 vaccine production with 19 developing countries.

China, a developing country itself, is the main source of vaccines obtained by other developing countries as well as the biggest supplier of COVID-19 vaccines to the world.

China can confidently say that it has supplied the most COVID-19 vaccines to the world, without fear of contradiction.

Yet some Western politicians and media continue to denigrate China's efforts. As early as December 2020, when China announced major progress in clinical tests of its COVID-19 vaccines, they claimed China was engaged in a "vaccine race".

When China donates vaccines to the world, it is said to be practicing "vaccine diplomacy", despite the fact that China has never attached any conditions to its vaccine assistance.

Now they are trying to cast doubts on the safety and effectiveness of Chinese vaccines, despite the fact that Chinese vaccines have proved their effectiveness.

Such claims display the selfishness of those Western politicians who are willing to put the lives and health of hundreds of millions of people at risk to protect the West's privileges.

If these politicians are unwilling to offer a helping hand to others, the least they can do is not to point accusing fingers at China.

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading again. According to reports, from Nov 8 to 14, the world saw 3.4 million new infections, 300,000 more than that of the preceding week.

Yet the developed countries in the West are still failing to honor their promises to supply vaccines to other countries in need. In June, the G7 countries promised to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines to the world by the end of 2021. Its members separately promised more. The US president has even compared his country's role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic to the one it played in World War II.

Yet with 43 days left to the end of the year, the US has only provided 13.5 percent of its promised quota. There has been no mention of when the remainder will be forthcoming.

Instead of assistance, they offer nice gestures, nice words and a nice comparison. It's just a show.