China’s vaccine diplomacy has an aggressive anti-vax element

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, China sent millions of masks and protective equipment to countries around the world in an effort to leverage the Covid-19 crisis for diplomatic gains. Mask diplomacy has now given way to vaccine diplomacy—but not only of the positive kind. Over the past week, major propaganda outlets including Xinhua, People’s Daily, and China Daily have all published articles about the deaths of elderly shot recipients in Norway, and accused English-language media of downplaying the deaths even though multiple outlets carried reports of them.