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 "Would this be selected for the Worst Public Relations Award of the
Year?" the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday in an
article on WeChat, which compiled more than 10 mocking tweets by
other social media users under a U.S. embassy Twitter statement
announcing the donation.
Duelling for global influence, Beijing and Washington have both
sought to garner goodwill by pledging to supply vaccines
to desperate governments amid a global shortage.
Though Washington recently announced expanded efforts, Beijing got a
head start by donating domestically made vaccines to emerging
countries.
U.S. President Joe Biden said last week that Washington will donate
half a billion doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the world's
poorest countries, on top of 80 million doses it has already pledged
to donate by the end of June.
On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain said on Twitter that
its donation to Trinidad and Tobago includes 80 vials of the Pfizer
vaccine. Typically, a vial contains five or six doses.
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 "We believe that every vaccine
counts," the embassy said.
Chinese state media outlets including the Global
Times and China Daily took delight at the
sarcastic comments generated by the embassy
tweet.
"Little was given, but much was spoken on it,"
Xinhua said.
In May, China delivered 100,000 donated doses of
Sinopharm's vaccine to Trinidad and Tobago.
Beijing has not disclosed an overall figure for
its vaccine donations, but Reuters calculations
based on publicly available data show that at
least 16.82 million doses had been delivered by
early June.
(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Simon
Cameron-Moore)
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