Chinese Government agrees to donate 1 million Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine doses worth $18 million in September 2021

The Chinese Government delivered 500,000 donated doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines to the Government of Malaysia on July 16, 2021. Upon arrival, the vaccines were escorted by the Royal Malaysian Police Force (PDRM) to Pharmaniaga’s warehouse before being distributed nationwide as part of the National COVID-19 Immunization Program. Then, on September 29, 2021, Dato’ Saifuddin Abdullah, Malaysia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Wang Yi, State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), held a telephone conversation. Wang Yi conveyed the decision by the Chinese Government to contribute an additional 1 million Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine doses to the Government of Malaysia, on the basis of the deep friendship between the two countries and peoples. It is unclear if the Chinese Government fulfilled this commitment. Then, in December 2021, representatives of the Chinese Government and the Government of Malaysia attended the Malaysia-China High Level Committee (HLC) on Cooperation in the Post-Covid-19 Era. At that meeting, the Chinese Government reportedly made a commitment to donate an additional 2 million Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine doses to the Government of Malaysia. It is unclear if the Chinese Government fulfilled this commitment.

Additional details

1. According to the UNICEF COVID-19 Vaccine Market Dashboard, the price of a single Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine dose is $18 (https://www.oecd.org/officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DCD/DAC/STAT(2022)33&docLanguage=En). As such, AidData has estimated the monetary value of the September 2021 commitment as $18 million.

Number of official sources

4

Number of total sources

16