China Pursues ‘Mask Diplomacy’ With Asian Neighbors during Coronavirus Crisis

Estimated read time 2 min read

China, once the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, is moving to polish up its battered image by scrambling to donate medical equipment and other resources to countries reeling from the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

Countries in South and Southeast Asia are receiving from Beijing huge shipments of medical equipment, personal protective gear and test kits, as well as medical advice on how to treat victims of the contagious and deadly virus, officials said.

In Malaysia – where coronavirus cases now top 2,000 – health authorities held a teleconference this week with experts from China to discuss how to rein in the infection rate, which shot up in recent weeks, said Noor Hisham Abdullah, director-general of the Ministry of Health.

“We were looking into learning new things to help us fight COVID-19 … There are new medicines from China…,” he told reporters, adding that some of the drugs may not yet be approved for use in Malaysia and their side effects still needed to be studied.

China had already supplied Malaysia with protective gear, hand sanitizers and other materials for the fight against the virus, he said.

Beijing even offered to send doctors to Malaysia, Noor Hisham said, “but, thank God, so far we have enough doctors.”

Full story: BenarNews

Imran Vittachi
Washington

Copyright ©2020, BenarNews. Used with the permission of BenarNews.

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