Is Sinovac’s early shipment to Singapore ‘unusual’ or just part of China’s vaccine diplomacy?

When the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines arrived in Singapore in December, the moment was cheered by residents and politicians alike. Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung received the shipment with much fanfare and oversaw its delivery to a cold-chain warehouse, while Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called the arrival of the vaccines a “welcome present that we’ve all been looking forward to”. It was a similar story two months later, when the city state received its first batch of Moderna shots…