Medical supplies donated by China are unloaded from a plane at Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare, Zimbabwe, on May 11, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Yuliang)
"China has walked its talk with African countries and other developing countries around the world in an effort to manage this pandemic," said Cavince Adhere, a Kenya-based international relations scholar.
"Countries cannot act in compartments. They must be willing to shed off the tag of nationalism and begin to speak in a language that resonates with the cross-border challenges that we're facing today," he added.
Thursday marks the one-year anniversary of the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19, which has delivered an important message to the world that countries must stand together to rein in the devastating pandemic before it causes further harm.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, when addressing the summit on June 17, 2020, said that in the face of COVID-19, China and Africa have enhanced solidarity and strengthened friendship and mutual trust, reaffirming China's commitment to its longstanding friendship with Africa.
As the war against the coronavirus continues, especially when new waves of COVID-19 infections hit some parts of the world, the China-Africa solidarity throws light on the right way to fight a common enemy of mankind.
RUSH TO WHER NEEDED
During the extraordinary summit last year, Xi said people and their lives must be put front and center, and that China and Africa should do whatever it takes to protect people's lives and health.
As the developing world is still facing a huge vaccination gap due to a dire shortage of vaccines, China has been trying its best to supply vaccines to wher they are most urgently needed, havin donated vaccines to more than 80 developing countries.
China has pledged to make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good. Currently, more than 30 African countries have received or will receive Chinese vaccines.
In Cameroon, Antoinette Fatimatu, a 38-year-old nurse who conducts COVID-19 tests at the Yaounde General Hospital, said the most difficult part of her job is to tell people they are positive for COVID-19. "I have seen people die within days after I test them positive. I need protection and can't wait to be vaccinated," her colleague Judith Maya told Xinhua.
