Photo:Xinhua

Brazil on Wednesday announced to resume clinical trials of China's Sinovac coronavirus vaccine two days after suspending them, after the Butantan Institute, which is affiliated with the Sao Paolo health authority and is coordinating the trial, said the death of a volunteer has nothing to do with the vaccine candidate. The issue however revealed the rivalry between Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and Sao Paulo Governor João Doria and the political battle has made the vaccine innocent victim. 

Moreover, the Western media has clearly taken advantage of Brazil's internal political divergence to portray China in a negative way. A Chinese netizen has bitterly said, "It seems to be risky to do clinical trials in the backyard of the US." 

The truth is that the West has never stopped its frenzied suppression of China's vaccine and will grasp every opportunity to defame China.

Many mainstream Western media outlets have disregarded the facts in their coverage of this incident. They have chosen only materials in favor of their anti-China stance. They highlighted that "clinical trials were halted following a 'severe adverse event'" but gave no more details, misleading their audience to believe it was the vaccine itself that caused severe problems.

Such biased reports came out as the drug maker Pfizer announced that an early analysis of its coronavirus vaccine trial suggested the vaccine, which was jointly developed with the German drug maker BioNTech, was more than 90 percent effective. What a coincidence!

From face masks to vaccine, every aspect of China's efforts to contain COVID-19 has been politicized and smeared. Though still incapable of putting the epidemic under control, the West has been stigmatizing China's efforts that have proven to be successful. 

They intentionally misinterpret China's assistance to other countries as malicious political tricks to create division in the West and thus gain more so-called geopolitical influence. 

By no means can these accusations from thin air help the West counter the roaring second wave of COVID-19. Eventually, ordinary Westerners will be the biggest victims of this extreme politicization of epidemic fight.

In the face of the second wave, the US - the leader of the West - is still indulged in its paranoid China policies. Instead of figuring out feasible ways to flatten the curve, Washington has put aside the inglorious milestone of being the world's first country to register 10 million COVID-19 infections and stick to its anti-China campaign. 

Overcoming the epidemic can be the real political gain for Western political elites, but to overcome COVID-19 they need in the first place to get rid of their engagement in politicizing the epidemic fight. 

The West's slander of China's vaccine also mirrors their fear about China's rapid rise in science and technology. They do not believe China is able to develop effective vaccine as they have been viewing China with pride and prejudice. 

Therefore, every time China makes breakthroughs in vaccine R&D, they assume that China has used unfair means and is a challenge to their monopoly in science and technology sphere. Holding tight onto such zero-sum mind-set will only lead the West to more misjudgments that will jeopardize ordinary Westerners' interests.