Last May, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that Beijing would make any future COVID-19 vaccine available to Africa and other developing regions as a "global public good." He didn't explain, though, what that actually meant. Since that speech to the World Health Assembly, there've been very few details as to how China plans to distribute a C19 vaccine in Africa, how much it will cost and which countries will have to pay for it.But last week we got our first clue as to what the Chinese may be planning to do. After months of hesitation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunyin delivered a surprise announcement last Friday that the government will join the COVID-19 global vaccine alliance known as Covax. This is the same organization that the U.S. has refused to support due to its close relationship with the World Health Organization that Washington recently withdrew from and that it contends is unduly influenced by China.George Zixiang Zhou closely follows China's vaccine development in his role as policy and advocacy association at the Beijing-based consultancy Bridge Consulting. He joins Eric & Cobus from the Chinese capital to discuss what the Covax decision means for Beijing's COVID-19 vaccine strategy in Africa and why this is such a high-risk, high-reward undertaking.JOIN THE DISCUSSION:Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChinaAfricaProjectTwitter: @eolander | @stadenesqueSUBSCRIBE TO THE CAP'S DAILY EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR JUST $3 FOR 3 MONTHS.Your subscription supports independent journalism. Subscribers get the following:1. A daily email newsletter of the top China-Africa news.2. Access to the China-Africa Experts Network3. Unlimited access to the CAP's exclusive analysis content on chinaafricaproject.comTry it out for just $3 for 3 months: www.chinaafricaproject.com/subscribeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.