China has been projecting itself as the front-runner in the Covid vaccine race but has now gone in for a deal to buy the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine from Germany for its own use which shows that the dragon is not as confident in its home-made product as it would have others believe.

Beijing had launched aggressive vaccine diplomacy to woo ASEAN, Brazil and Mexico as part of its campaign to increase its influence worldwide. However, countries in the ASEAN bloc have turned away from the offer and signed deals for the Pfizer vaccine instead since there is no transparency in the development of the Chinese vaccine as is the case with much else in the country. ASEAN members Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia have finalised deals for procuring COVID-19 vaccines from US pharma giant Pfizer and Britain's AstraZeneca which also has a collaboration with Pune-based Serum Institute of India. Brazil and Taiwan have also raised questions over the Chinese vaccine candidates.