amid the prolonged covid-19 outbreaks and the ensuing social and economic impacts, china has helped the asean (the association of southeast asian nations) countries with their battle against the pandemic.
so far, china has provided asean member states with over 300 million doses of covid-19 vaccines, a great number of emergency medical supplies in addition to the support of medical teams.
take vietnam, for example, china has agreed to provide vietnam with nearly 40 million doses of vaccines, including donated and sold ones this year, according to the chinese consulate general in ho chi minh city.
in addition to the provision of vaccines, china has acted as a springboard for countries to speed up trade, investment, transport and tourism, said vietnamese officials and economists.
meanwhile, china is actively facilitating trade in asean with the launches of cross-border railway services, an official at the state-owned vietnam railway corporation told xinhua on monday.
according to china's official data, trade between china and asean skyrocketed by 85 times to 684.6 billion u.s. dollars in 2020 from less than 8 billion u.s. dollars in 1991, making the two sides each other's largest trading partners.
china was also the first non-asean member to complete ratification of the regional comprehensive economic partnership (rcep) inked by 15 asia-pacific countries, including china and asean's 10 member states in november last year.
covering a region with a combined gdp of 26.2 trillion u.s. dollars, or about 30 percent of global gdp, rcep is the world's largest free trade deal.
