Global Public Health (Jan 2023)

China’s health silk road construction during the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Weiwei Zeng,
  • Mengli Ding,
  • Hongsong Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2023.2185799
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 1

Abstract

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China has been contributing to new approaches to global governance. The Health Silk Road (HSR), a significant component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), was proposed by China in 2016. This paper claims that HSR is a new institution introduced alongside the existing WHO-led multilateral health system, and its relationship with the existing system can be described as layering. Having explored the new development of HSR during COVID-19, this paper further argues that while HSR has its unique strength in making contributions to global health governance and economic recovery, it faces a prominent issue of securitisation in the context of China-U.S. strategic competition, suspicion of the quality of medical products and sectoral fragmentation.

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