The Political Economy of Vaccine Distribution and China's Belt and Road Initiative: A Research Note

Do national strategic interests influence how countries respond to a global health crisis? We answer this question in the context of China’s FDI flows into host countries under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Employing a newly available dataset on Chinese COVID-19 vaccine deliveries for a cross-section of 108 BRI member countries, our analysis shows that recipients of Chinese FDI under the BRI project have received more vaccines and in the form of donations from China. Our findings confirm that bilateral foreign assistance is influenced by donor strategic concerns. The results remain robust to several robustness checks, including endogeneity concerns.