China provides over 700 mln COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries globally

BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- China has done its best to provide over 700 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to countries across the world, especially the developing nations, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Thursday.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a question on China's vaccine assistance.

Noting that China has helped more than 100 countries save lives and fight the epidemic without attaching any political strings, Zhao said "if such efforts are regarded as vaccine diplomacy, China's vaccine diplomacy is very popular and conforms to the common interests of the international community."

"Those countries that accuse and slander China should first ask themselves what they have done for the world," Zhao said.

"What they should do is to stop their 'lie diplomacy' and 'slander diplomacy' and put their mind and energy into doing something practical for the world to fight the pandemic," the spokesperson said.