A common story you hear is that Chinese vaccines are less effective and that they also do not want to rely on Western vaccines in turn.
What I don't quite understand is why they couldn't just create some joint venture with a Western pharma company and then supply a rebranded version of the mRNA vaccines to their population. I would think they have the propaganda tools at hand to make such a move palatable even to the more nationalist citizenry? Surely this would be preferable to the costly shutdowns.
Probably I'm also unaware of the constraints the Chinese leadership is operating under. I tend to think they have the power to make anything happen with their unlimited propaganda and censorship tools, but perhaps that is not the case and selling a foreign vaccine domestically is harder than I thought.
I came across a recommendation for The Economist's podcast The Prince here on HN, and can say it's a great primer on the modern calculus of Chinese leadership.
> What I don't quite understand is why they couldn't just create some joint venture with a Western pharma company and then supply a rebranded version of the mRNA vaccines to their population
At the start of all this, around 2020, there was a media campaign against mRNA vaccine in China's propaganda, mostly emphasizing its side effects. It fit the nationalistic narrative that "our covid response is superior". The fear mongering worked and now many people are afraid of the side effects of the mRNA vaccine. Not quite easy to walk that back now.
> What I don't quite understand is why they couldn't just create some joint venture with a Western pharma company and then supply a rebranded version of the mRNA vaccines to their population.
I get the impression that Western companies have become a bit wary of those "joint ventures," following incidents like the ARM / Softbank / ARM China saga.
What I don't quite understand is why they couldn't just create some joint venture with a Western pharma company and then supply a rebranded version of the mRNA vaccines to their population. I would think they have the propaganda tools at hand to make such a move palatable even to the more nationalist citizenry? Surely this would be preferable to the costly shutdowns.
Probably I'm also unaware of the constraints the Chinese leadership is operating under. I tend to think they have the power to make anything happen with their unlimited propaganda and censorship tools, but perhaps that is not the case and selling a foreign vaccine domestically is harder than I thought.