(CNN) China and Australia have found another battleground for their deepening diplomatic standoff: the Pacific Islands' pandemic response. Now all that political maneuvering has turned PNG's Covid-19 outbreak into another area of competition as Australia and China present themselves as benevolent partners. The reality for the delay in approving the Chinese vaccines was likely a simple case of timing. Jonathan Pryke, director of the Lowy Institute's Pacific Islands Program, said it was "terrible optics" that Australia wasn't rolling out AstraZeneca to everyone domestically, but was happy to give it to Pacific countries. And he said he didn't spend time worrying about the tensions between Australia and China playing out in the Pacific.

Source: CNN July 19, 2021 00:33 UTC