China aims to vaccinate at least half a billion of its people against COVID-19 in four months, a challenge that will test the country's formidable industrial might just as it accelerates efforts to help inoculate the rest of the world.
Reuters calculations indicate China could ramp up capacity enough to vaccinate the world's biggest population and hundreds of millions beyond, in dozens of countries from Africa to Latin America.
But little is known about how fully the three approved domestic manufacturers are using their capacity — a lack of information that leaves a huge question mark over global efforts to end the pandemic that began in central China.