【英文】欧洲安全研究所报告：中国的印太“朋友圈”战略（63页）

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’.