Joined by nine of his colleagues, U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) wrote to House Appropriations Committee leaders this week requesting additional financial support for global vaccination efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthen international relations.
The effort is, at least in part, also a means to counter perceived influence from the People’s Republic of China. The lawmakers accused it of using its own vaccine export program to lean on other nations diplomatically, including undermining international outrage over human rights abuses in its Xinjiang region and weakening support for Taiwan.
“As members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the House Committee on Armed Services, we are keenly aware of the importance of foreign aid in undergirding American global leadership, and we are deeply concerned that an inadequate American response to the global COVID-19 pandemic will have significant negative consequences for both global health and American strategic objectives,” the lawmakers wrote. “In order to restore American moral leadership on the world stage and strengthen bilateral relationships between the United States and our allies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, we strongly support a comprehensive US-led global COVID-19 response, and we are prepared to support additional robust funding through the FY22 appropriations process to achieve this goal.”
So far, the U.S. has shipped almost 430 million donated doses of vaccine abroad, according to the Department of State. Numerous governments and organizations have called attention to the continued lack of vaccines among developing nations, however, leaving an opening for more equitable work. Two years after COVID-19 became a global pandemic, only 13.6 percent of people living in low-income countries have received even a single dose of vaccine.
Into this space, the lawmakers noted, has entered China, which has already delivered nearly 1.4 billion doses across the world. That makes China the world’s largest exporter of vaccines.
“This is all the more concerning in light of reports that China is not just selling vaccines; they are extracting concessions from countries in exchange for vaccines,” the members wrote. “Paraguay has been pressured to cut ties with Taiwan in exchange for Chinese vaccines, while Ukraine was coerced into withdrawing support for a Human Rights Council statement criticizing China’s human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.”
With USAID having informed the Congress members that it will likely have expended or obligated all its funding from the American Rescue Plan Act by the end of February, the authors argued that a catastrophic moral and strategic blunder could be at hand for the United States.