China’s Health Silk Road

Vaccine Diplomacy and Health Governance

Gerald Chan, Professor Emeritus of Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand

In the fourth instalment of his ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ series, Gerald Chan provides a critical analysis of China’s vaccine diplomacy. Locating it within China’s wider infrastructure development strategy, Chan deploys geo-developmentalism as a theoretical tool to analyse its contribution to a new global health order, particularly with the pandemic pushing the country to the forefront of vaccine exportation.

‘This is Professor Chan''s fourth major book on China''s international development policy and practice. Following on his earlier work on the Railway Silk Road, Maritime Silk Road and Digital Silk Road, Chan’s theory of geo-developmentalism gets further tested in this new body of material on China’s international health aid policy. A timely and theoretically significant work indeed.’
– Xiaoming Huang, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

‘Chan has already produced path-breaking works on China’s massive international project, the Belt and Road Initiative. This brilliant book follows on by showing China’s assistance to world-wide health through such contributions as vaccines. Chan has added this splendid study of the all-important health silk road to economic, infrastructural and cultural silk roads.’
– Colin Mackerras, Griffith University, Australia