The sudden death of a vice-consul at the Foreign Ministry of the Central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan last week, suspected by his family to be related to the vaccination with China National Pharmaceutical Group’s New Crown vaccine, has since been denied by the country’s government. The public has questioned Beijing’s pressure behind the scenes. Meanwhile, the local Chinese embassy issued a statement strongly condemning those who reported the death for damaging Sino-Kyrgyz friendship. Critics say China is pushing vaccine diplomacy through vaccines and debt to cover up China’s vaccine problem.
Bakhtiyar Shakirov, a 39-year-old vice-consul of the consular department of Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry, died suddenly last Thursday (1).
Elena Bayalinova, a former spokeswoman for the country’s health ministry, revealed on Facebook the following day (Friday, 2) that Shakirov had died from a suspected Chinese vaccination. She alleged that she received a phone call from a relative of the deceased, saying that he had been vaccinated with China National Pharmaceutical Group’s New Crown vaccine. Bayalinova believes that the health department should conduct an objective investigation and release the findings.
However, Bayalinova later deleted the information and apologized. Only a day later (Saturday, 3) she wrote on Facebook again with a meaningful message: close the door of the so-called mistake and the truth will not enter. In the comments on her Facebook page, some Kyrgyz netizens questioned the government’s fear of pressure from the Chinese government to cover up the truth.
Erkin Azat, a Kazakh citizen journalist living in France, questioned that the Chinese Communist authorities are responding to the vaccine risks in China in the same way that they are concealing the epidemic. He says that China has gone from being the cause of the spread of the epidemic to being a “global protest leader” and is strongly promoting its “vaccine diplomacy” in a way that overlaps with the “One Belt, One Road “These are all CCP political projects.
Chinese vaccines are not officially recognized internationally, but the Chinese government has been “marketing” them to color China’s “One Belt, One Road,” Asat said. The Chinese government may threaten these countries with debt problems to force them to promote Chinese vaccines, and behind the death of the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry consul, we wonder how many civilians have died in China and other China-influenced countries due to uncertified Chinese vaccines? In the future the Chinese government will use the official media of other countries to influence and block the emergence of similar real information. As always, the “smooth rollout” of Chinese vaccines is praised.
Rifat, a Uyghur currently living in Turkey, told the station that many Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan told him that they believe Shakirov died from the Chinese vaccine and that China, which uses the vaccine as a political bargaining chip, pressured the Kyrgyz side to keep the truth from being made public.
Rifat said: “My Kyrgyz friends fully believe the information about the death of the Chinese vaccine, and there is no doubt about its authenticity. The Chinese Communist Party has been doing “vaccine diplomacy”, which is completely blackmail and threat diplomacy. The Chinese Communist Party has been doing “vaccine diplomacy”, which is completely blackmail and threat diplomacy.
As a result of the incident, Rifaat is also concerned that the CCP will use “vaccine diplomacy” to pressure the extradition of Uighurs in exile abroad. In February, a Turkish opposition lawmaker revealed that Beijing used the vaccine as bait to pressure the Turkish parliament to pass a secret extradition deal. Turkey is one of the biggest exile places for Uyghurs overseas.
Our correspondent sent a request for comment to Bayalinova via Facebook and has not yet received a reply. We also contacted several of Shakirov’s former Foreign Ministry colleagues or friends, but did not receive a reply.
The Kyrgyz media quoted the Ministry of Health and Social Development’s response to the incident, saying that Shakirov died after being injected with antibiotics at the National Maternal and Child Health Center. The forensic doctor found no traces of vaccination on Shakirov’s body, and the health center’s vaccination registry did not contain Shakirov’s registration information. The final expert opinion will be published within 14 days. The Kyrgyz Ministry of Health also asked the public not to be disturbed by false information. It said that the vaccine from China is still one of the available methods to deal with the new coronavirus.
As of press time, the Chinese Embassy in Kyrgyzstan did not respond to our request for comment.
The Chinese Embassy in Kyrgyzstan earlier issued a statement on the incident, criticizing Bayalinova for “spreading fake news” through social media without confirmation and causing “bad influence,” which is “a smear on the friendship between China and Kyrgyzstan. The statement also boasted that “the Chinese government has not only discredited the death of the victim, but also desecrated it,” which China strongly condemned.
The statement also boasted that “China was one of the first countries to successfully develop the new vaccine, and has provided and is providing vaccine assistance to 80 countries, exporting vaccines to 47 countries, and more than 70 countries have authorized the use of Chinese vaccines, and the safety and efficacy of Chinese vaccines have been widely recognized by the international community”; it also stressed that China and Kyrgyzstan have friendly relations and China has provided a lot of assistance for the country to fight against the epidemic.
On March 19, the first batch of 150,000 doses of New Crown vaccine from China National Pharmaceutical Group’s China Bio, which the Chinese government assisted Kyrgyzstan, arrived in the country’s capital Bishkek. Starting from March 29, Kyrgyzstan started to vaccinate its nationals nationwide.
Recent Comments