Iran released a video on Twitter last week showing its 81-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, receiving the first dose of a domestically produced coronavirus vaccine.
It is a photo opportunity that has played out around the world. From Joe Biden in the US, Justin Trudeau in Canada and Boris Johnson in Britain to Yoshihide Suga in Japan, Lee Hsien Loong in Singapore and Muhyiddin Yassin in Malaysia – many leaders and top officials have received their jabs in front of the cameras as they seek to boost public confidence in vaccinations.
For some it was to offer reassurance about getting a Chinese shot. A photo showed Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum getting a Sinopharm jab back in November, while Indonesian President Joko Widodo was pictured getting a Sinovac shot in January.
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Joe Biden receives coronavirus vaccination, gives credit to Trump administration
Joe Biden receives coronavirus vaccination, gives credit to Trump administration
For others, there were no cameras. German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced in a statement that she had received the Moderna jab last week after a first dose of AstraZeneca, while French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin also issued statements about their vaccinations.
But in China, there has been no word on whether leaders or even senior officials have had the jab.
Gao Fu, who heads the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said last year that he intended to get vaccinated, while retired officials like former commerce minister Chen Deming are among the few who have publicly confirmed that they have been immunised.
That of course does not mean China’s leaders and senior officials have not been vaccinated – in fact, there was speculation they had been given experimental jabs very early on in the pandemic and some, like top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, are unlikely to have taken overseas trips in the past year without being vaccinated.
Instead, it is a reflection of a political culture that sees publicising something like this as a taboo, and where the health of leaders – and discussion of it – is regarded as a state secret.
China also has other means to push forward its vaccination drive. The country said last week it had achieved a key target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population, or 630 million people. How? Through incentives like shopping coupons, pressure from employers, especially government departments and public institutions, and making it harder to get access to some public places if you are not vaccinated. No photo of Xi Jinping rolling up his sleeve required.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: On jabs, China’s leaders are camera-shy
