The U.S. Department of Defense has acknowledged that it engaged in a propaganda campaign in the Philippines to discourage the use of China ’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine during the height of the pandemic.
A non-public Pentagon report, obtained by Reuters, outlines that the DOD engaged in a messaging effort against the Chinese vaccine in the Philippines and other countries that were heavily dependent upon China for public health resources during the pandemic.
At the time, government officials from the United States were concerned that the Chinese Communist Party was exploiting the circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic to negotiate geopolitical deals and undermine U.S. alliances by sending aid.
The DOD report cited by the news outlet was sent to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Department of National Defense on June 25.
According to the document, the Pentagon admitted that it “did message Philippines audiences questioning the safety and efficacy of Sinovac” and, in so doing, “made some missteps in or COVID related messaging.”
The document also explained that the anti-Sinovac campaign was ultimately “misaligned with [U.S.] priorities” and the operation ceased in August 2021.
At the time of publication, the Pentagon had not responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are leaving on Friday for a trip to the Indo-Pacific region. They are expected to visit the Philippines, where they will meet with Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo.
Ahead of the trip, Austin praised the “progress” in the U.S.-Philippine relationship made during his tenure.
“When I started as secretary, our ties with the Philippines were at a low point. We were even on the brink of losing our decades-old Visiting Forces Agreement,” he told reporters on Thursday. “But after three years of intensive engagement and partnership, we are in an entirely new chapter of our alliance.”
The Philippines was among the hardest-hit countries in Southeast Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 67,000 deaths by 2024, according to the World Health Organization.
Sinovac, one of China’s largest vaccine manufacturers, began Phase III clinical trials in July 2020 in Brazil, expanding the clinical trials to Indonesia, Turkey, and the Philippines by April 2021. During the clinical trials, Sinovac secured several large contracts for emergency authorization in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.
As of November 2023, 72% of the Philippine population had received a completed primary series of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 22% had received at least one booster vaccination.
The initial media investigation into the campaign, published in June, led to an investigation into U.S. activities by the Philippine Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The head of the committee, Sen. Imee Marcos, described the U.S. military action at a June 25 hearing as “evil, wicked, dangerous, unethical,” questioning whether her country had any legal recourse against the U.S.
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