The Epoch Times and Radio Free Asia (January 14 & January 13 respectively) reported that on January 13, Zhong Shanshan, CEO of Chinese Wantai Biosciences and the richest man in China and Asia, abruptly resigned citing “personal reasons.” Before Zhong Shanshan’s resignation, Chinese Wantai Biosciences was collaborating with Xiamen University and the University of Hong Kong to develop a nasal spray COVID vaccine. On January 6, it released a statement stating that the company is uncertain as to the trial results from phase one through phase three and is unable to project when the product will be available for sale. On January 12, Li Zhiming, Chairman of the board and Li Hui, board member of the State-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm Holdings also resigned for “personal reasons.” On December 31, 2020, Sinopharm Holdings had just received the official approval to have a limited launch of its COVID vaccine, but a recent news report suggested that among the SOE's expatriates deployed to countries including Serbia and Angola, about three hundred of them still contracted COVID 19 even after they received Sinopharm vaccine. Meanwhile, according to the data the Brazilian Research Institute released on January 12, the China developed Sinovac vaccine efficacy in clinical trial phase three was 50.4 percent, down from 78 percent that the Brazil’s Butantan Institute reported one week ago. Last December, China’s official media refused to disclose the COVID vaccine trial results in Brazil. It published the results from Turkey instead and claimed that it was 91.25 effective. However, the data from Indonesia showed the number was only 65.3 percent.

(Comment: The reports are a setback to China's effort at 'Vaccine Diplomacy'. The sudden resignation of top executives of Chinese pharmaceutical companies suggest that the efficacy of the domestic developed COVID 19 vaccines could have been exaggerated.)