Quality issues of Chinese medical supplies should not be politicized
March 31, 2020 Category Health, Weekly
A controversy has erupted about the quality of some medical supplies that foreign countries imported from China. But the Chinese government and Chinese Embassies emphasized that the issue should not be politicized. They point out that a distinction should be made between supplies provided with Chinese government support on the one hand and deals made between foreign buyers and Chinese companies, whose products may not have received quality approvals from the Chinese government on the other hand. The company that provided Covid-19 test kits to Spain did not get a license from China’s authorities for selling its products, the Chinese Embassy to Spain said on its Twitter account in response to claims that these test kits were “substandard”.
Spain has bought USD467 million in medical supplies from China, including 950 ventilators, 5.5 million test kits, 11 million pairs of gloves and more than half a billion face masks. But the test kits involved in the incident are not the ones it bought from the Chinese government – they were imported by a Spanish supplier from a Chinese manufacturer. The test kits were found to be of “low sensitivity” and the Spanish government decided to return the products and contact the manufacturer to replace the tests kits with another batch. The market supervision administration in Shenzhen has started an investigation into the company, it announced in a notice. The test kits were produced by Shenzhen Bioeasy Biotechnology. The company claimed on its WeChat account that the low sensitivity of the test kits used in Spain was due to the users not following the instructions properly in the process of taking samples, the Global Times reports.
China’s sincere efforts to help others fight Covid-19 by facilitating purchases of made-in-China medical supplies should be respected, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, adding that any political interpretation of the moves should be avoided. The remarks came after media reports said some countries raised concerns over the quality of the Chinese supplies, or questioned the motives of the country’s efforts to help others. Hua said many countries have recently purchased Chinese medical supplies as the contagion spreads worldwide, and Chinese enterprises are working round-the-clock to produce products that help protect people’s lives in many countries. “While guaranteeing domestic supply, we support qualified and reputable companies to export medical supplies and we also provide convenience in terms of manufacturing, transport and customs clearance,” she told reporters at a news conference in Beijing.
In Slovakia, inaccurate results of rapid detection kits purchased from China were due to medical personnel misusing antigen test kits. As for the so-called defective masks that the Dutch government purchased from China, some masks purchased by the Netherlands are not adequate for use in intensive care units, the China Daily reports.
Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has called on EU countries to stand ready for a “struggle for influence” in a “global battle of narratives” as Beijing has called its campaign to send millions of face masks to Europe a show of solidarity and friendship. Borrell noted that the focus had shifted from Europe helping China to the other way round. “China is aggressively pushing the message that, unlike the U.S., it is a responsible and reliable partner.” But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen thanked China for providing the EU with medical supplies, including 2 million surgical masks. She called it a “reciprocal” act given the EU had dispatched similar equipment to China during the start of the outbreak.
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