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China’s new ambassador to US calls for Covid-19 cooperation
- Qin Gang, who is currently in quarantine in Washington, tweets that the two countries should work together on vaccines and helping other countries
- But some observers say that given the deep-seated tensions between the countries, his intervention will make little difference
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China’s new ambassador to the United States has called for cooperation in fighting Covid-19 despite the growing tensions between the two countries.
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Qin Gang, currently completing his second week of quarantine in Washington, tweeted on Friday that the spread of the Delta variant was causing a resurgence of infections in the US and local outbreaks in China.
“How about our two countries working together on solutions, eg more effective vaccines & helping other countries?” he tweeted.
The world has now registered more than 200 million Covid-19 cases, according to data from the World Health Organization.
Both China and the US have donated millions of vaccines around the world, but with the emergence of ever more infectious variants of Covid-19, the time it took for the mark of 200 million cases to be reached was only half of the time it took for the 100-million-mark to be reached.
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Cheng Xiaohe, a professor of international relations at Renmin University, said Qin’s reputation outside China was that of a tough diplomat but since arriving to the US his rhetoric has been “conciliatory and forward-looking.”
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