China's underwhelming vaccines

"Vaccine diplomacy" only works if your vaccines do.

A few months ago, I noted that China was making a very big deal about sharing its homegrown vaccines against COVID-19 with other countries, in contrast to “vaccine hoarding” by wealthier nations. Providing an affordable, effective solution to this deadly plague had the potential to make the Chinese pharmaceutical industry - and the Chinese Communist Party, though I repeat myself - many new friends and allies around the world.

That’s how it was supposed to work, anyway. In practice, countries that that bet on Chinese vaccines are finding that they don’t work too well:

Mongolia promised its people a “COVID-free summer.” Bahrain said there would be a “return to normal life.” The tiny island nation of the Seychelles aimed to jump-start its economy.

All three put their faith, at least in part, in easily accessible Chinese-made vaccines, which would allow them to roll out ambitious inoculation programs at a time when much of the world was going without.

But instead of freedom from the coronavi…