Vice President Kamala Harris throughout the official launch of the CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Wednesday. Evelyn Hockstein/Getty Images
China one-upped the US in Vietnam by pledging to donate 2 million COVID-19 vaccines.
Kamala Harris was en route to Vietnam when this occurred.
The US has promised greater than 1 million COVID-19 vaccines to Vietnam.
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Kamala Harris was on her means to Vietnam to donate 1 million COVID-19 vaccines when China took benefit of a scheduling delay, despatched its diplomat to meet with the prime minister, and offered 2 million vaccines, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
Harris is touring in Southeast Asia this week as a part of the Biden administration’s broader effort to curb China’s increasing affect throughout the globe. President Joe Biden has made difficult China on the world stage a prime foreign-policy precedence, framing it as a battle between democracy and autocracy. China’s effort to one-up the US in Vietnam is emblematic of the evolving competitors between the two main powers.
Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanked the Chinese diplomat, including that Vietnam “does not ally with one country to fight against another,” in accordance to state media.
On Monday, Harris met with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. As the US confronted worldwide scrutiny over the chaos surrounding the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, Harris throughout a information convention with Lee stated, “The reason I am here is because the US is a global leader, and we take that role seriously.”
In a separate speech throughout the go to, Harris criticized China over its actions relating to the South China Sea.
“In the South China Sea, we know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate, and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” Harris stated. (*1*)
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“The US stands with our allies and partners in the face of these threats,” she added.
Harris additionally addressed the disaster in Afghanistan, which has solid a shadow over her journey, saying that Biden made “the courageous and right decision to end this war because we had achieved what we went there to do.”
The vice chairman stated the US was “laser-focused on the task at hand” to full evacuations from Afghanistan by an August 31 deadline.
In Vietnam on Wednesday, Harris continued to criticize China over its “bullying” techniques in the South China Sea.
(*2*) Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated in response, in accordance to The Associated Press.
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