【英文】欧洲安全研究所报告：中国的印太“朋友圈”战略（63页）

英文研究报告 2022年05月25日 07:47 管理员

In between, many countries are trying their best to avoid being pushed into one group or another. They form a rather large and fluid group of countries, about 50 % of UN members, whose position is issue-based and not necessarily aligned with one partner or core group. India can be considered as a member of this category, in the sense that it is closely aligned with the United States on some issues – for instance, it is concerned about the potential intentions behind China’s BRI and is strongly opposed to the inclusion of any references to the BRI and related vocabulary in UN resolutions and statements – but on other issues (e.g. on climate change or on human rights), its positions may appear closer to the China-Russia core group or to the position of the developing/emerging countries at large.China’s image has been tarnished and it is now perceived negatively among many other countries, partly due to Covid-19 as well as Beijing’s contentious ‘wolf-warrior diplomacy’. But a significant number of other countries still perceive China much less as a threat than Washington or Brussels do, and remain open to China’s initiatives and offers – as demonstrated by the number of countries who have accepted China’s assistance since the beginning of the pandemic.

Countries as diverse as Algeria, Brazil, Ethiopia or Lebanon have accepted exports and donations of medical as well as technological equipment (videoconference systems powered by Huawei, or DJI drones, among other devices). A significant group of countries is upset with the way China has managed the crisis, and has communicated around it, but at the same time an equally significant number of countries appears disappointed with the vaccine diplomacy promoted by the EU and the United States as part of COVAX, an international initiative to promote equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines (6). In particular, many African governments are dissatisfied with their limited access to vaccines, as they were still waiting for delivery of the promised COVAX vaccines at a time when many developed countries had moved ahead with the roll-out of large-scale vaccination programmes benefiting their own population (7). Reflecting this perception, the special envoy of the African Union for the purchase of anti-Covid-19 vaccines, Strive Masiyiwa, strongly criticised the Europeans during a July 2021 press conference on the COVAX initiative, saying that ‘not one dose, not one vial, has left a European factory for Africa’.