China Isn’t the Only Reason for Cambodia’s Vaccination Success

There is a tendency in Cambodian political debates to overemphasize the importance of foreign powers, either as saviors or destroyers. The emerging conventional wisdom says that Cambodia’s vaccination campaign successes (with 78.1 percent of the population now fully vaccinated) is almost entirely down to China, the provider of nearly all vaccines Cambodia has used.

Prime Minister Hun Sen has done more than most to promote this narrative. “If I do not rely on China, whom do I rely on?” hecommented in July. “Many people promised me much – but in the end, promises are not vaccines – and it was only the Chinese vaccines that actually arrived.”

A month earlier, he said: “Without the donations and sales of vaccines from China, we would not have vaccinated the Cambodian people.”

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