China unwilling to accept Western vaccines against Covid: US

Washington: US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday that Chinese President Xi Jinping is not willing to accept a Western vaccine against Covid-19 even though the country is facing protests on severe pandemic restrictions, Reuters reported.

Addressing the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in California, Haines said that covid had impacted China socially and economically, but Xi is unwilling to adopt a better vaccination. He said that the current vaccine China is using is not effective enough against Omicron, which is circulating throughout the nation.

Haines said, "Seeing protests and the response to it is countering the narrative that he likes to put forward, which is that China is so much more effective at government," Reuters quoted. "It's, again, not something we see as being a threat to stability at this moment, or regime change or anything like that," she said while adding: "How it develops will be important to Xi's standing."

Experts said that China clinging to domestically developed vaccines, which are not effective enough against the Covid-19 virus, might cause bigger risks if virus prevention measures are eased.

Earlier this week, the White House had said that China had not requested the US or vaccines, and it is not expected that Beijing would approve Western vaccines any sooner.

An official said that for China, accepting Western vaccines would be a matter of national pride.