Is China trying to put political pressure on Paraguay as a condition for vaccine deliveries?

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Representatives of the Paraguay-China Chamber of Commerce told some local media that they informed the Ministry of Health of China’s willingness for Paraguay to buy 14 million Sinovac vaccines through private Paraguayan firms.

According to these spokespersons, the lack of response slowed down this process, although at the weekend the Ministry affirmed that this request had not reached them through any official channel.

In this line, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this Monday in a statement that “there are serious doubts about the authenticity of such representations” and that furthermore “they have not been duly proven by the bidders to date”.

According to the Paraguayan Foreign Ministry some of those bidders, also without proven accreditation with Beijing, “would condition the sovereignty of the Paraguayan State by insinuating the rupture of relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan) as a requirement for the purchase of vaccines from the People’s Republic of China”.

“This improper conditioning finds no justification whatsoever, considering that the commercial exchange between Paraguay and the People’s Republic of China is normal and fluid, particularly if we take into account the high level (in quantity and value) of imports from that country, despite the lack of diplomatic relations,” the statement said.

Read: Analysis – China Enters Argentina as Good Samaritan but Could Become a Trojan Horse

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointed out that Paraguay “is open to negotiations of a commercial nature for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19 with all possible States and actors at world level”.

This “as long as the offers are made in an atmosphere of seriousness, responsibility, with sufficient guarantees and that they comply with the sanitary requirements of Paraguay, to ensure that the operations are successfully verified”.

Prior to this statement, Miguel Prieto, mayor of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second largest city, reiterated that the municipality is promoting the purchase of vaccines from China through local companies.

Prieto, who announced on his social network that the purpose is to vaccinate 200,000 people in the department, said today to some radio stations that between four and five other municipalities in the country will follow the initiative of his municipality, on the border with Brazil.

Paraguay’s political rapprochement with China is hindered by its alliance with Taiwan, an island that Beijing considers a rebel province, but which has maintained diplomatic relations with the South American country since the dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989).

Read: Guyana Nixes Taiwan Office After Beijing Criticizes “Mistake”

Paraguay has so far received vaccines destined for the target personnel: 36,000 from the Covax platform; 20,000 donated by Chile; 3,000 from the Arab Emirates, also donations; and 4,000 contracted with Russia.

The rest of the 4.3 million agreed with the Covax platform and the missing one million from the Sputnik V, whose four thousand doses were the first to arrive in the country, are still pending.

The pandemic has so far left a total of 3,730 deaths and 194,122 people infected in Paraguay, with a population of some seven million and in a red health alert for weeks due to the increase in cases.