> Chinese vaccines are absolute trash compared to Western vaccines, but Xi Jinping can't really backtrack on his decision to only use domestic vaccines because that would imply he, the half-god, has made an error in judgement.
The Chinese vaccine was the first vaccine out; and in particular the mRNA vaccine technology was new and unproven. There would be no shame in saying, "We can be proud that Sinovac was the first vaccine approved; it saved millions of lives and allowed us to go back to normal long before anyone else. But now, in the light of the new, more virulent strains of COVID (created in part by decision of the rest of the world not to implement coordinated lockdown strategies), and in the light of the extensive testing of the new mRNA vaccine technology, it makes sense to move on."
At least, there shouldn't be any shame in saying something like that; the shame is only in he heads of the CCP.
This is the political equivalent of a comb-over. People wearing a comb-over look in the mirror and convince themselves that it looks better than just being bald; whereas everyone else can already see that they're bald, and disrespect them more for refusing to accept the fact than they would just pure baldness.