Pfizer has partnered with China's payment platform called AliPay, which has been used to implement "vaccine passports" in the communist state since the COVID pandemic began. The partnership was uncovered when a media outlet unearthed a tweet from 2018.
"We are proud to stand with China leaders & @Alipay to introduce new, digital solutions to improve disease education and vaccine access-creating a brighter future for Chinese children," the tweet from Pfizer back in 2018, which was reported by the National Pulse last week, read.
The tweet also showed Pfizer's China Country General Manager Wu Kun, who was quoted as saying, "We are honored to be a partner in China's 'Internet + Vaccination' initiative. Disease awareness via mobile devices allows the public to more deeply understand disease prevention and improve overall health."
We are proud to stand with China leaders & @Alipay to introduce new, digital solutions to improve disease education and vaccine access-creating a brighter future for Chinese children. pic.twitter.com/fa6t6LUpiH
"” Pfizer Inc. (@pfizer) June 6, 2018
The report said that Pfizer has boosted its U.S. lobbying efforts in the past year especially in the face of the COVID pandemic. It is the same company that "expressed its pride for the brutal, communist regime" in the tweet dated June 6, 2018.
The partnership between Pfizer and China also involved AliPay, a Chinese only payment platform from Alibaba, a company that has been involved in the "research, production, and repair of weapons and equipment for the People's Liberation Army (PLA)" and has a "deep record of cooperation and collaboration" with China's "state security bureaucracy," as described by Assistant Secretary for International Security and Nonproliferation at the U.S. State Department Christopher Ford.
The State Department has also identified AliPay as a "tool" of the Chinese Communist Party that helps them build up their "technology-facilitated surveillance and social control."
In Pfizer's annual review, it said that they were using the AliPay platform, which has more than 700 million active users "to provide much needed education about disease and vaccinations" and "to help China reach its ambitious 2030 goals to reduce infant mortality."
China has long been facing a demographic crisis as birth rates in their 10-provincial level fall below 1%, the Economic Times reported. In August 2021, China adopted a three-child policy to "address the deepening demographic crisis attributed to the draconian decades-old one-child policy which policymakers blame for the demographic crisis in the country."
Meanwhile, the CCP utilized AliPay in its fight against COVID by monitoring its citizens. According to the New York Times, the Alipay Health Code is a system in which people are assigned a color code of green, yellow or red that indicates a person's health status. Green means the user can move "unrestricted," while someone with a yellow code must stay home for a week. Those with red codes must undergo a 14-day quarantine.
An analysis of the app's code revealed that the app shares information with the Chinese police, sending authorities details about a user's location, city, name, and identifying code number to the server.
The Alipay Health Code's creators said the app uses big data to determine if someone is a contagion risk. The issue, however, is how the personal data is collected, stored, accessed and used by the CCP.
