by Laurel Duggan
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s China president and global executive vice president pledged that the company would be patriotic in China and “love” the country’s ruling communist party, according to Reuters.
“Build a local, transnational company that loves the Communist Party and loves the country,” Wang Lei said, according to Reuters.
Lei made the comments at a Friday presentation to a crowd of several hundred during an event marking AstraZeneca’s 30 years of business in China, according to Reuters. AstraZeneca, the largest drug producer in China, made 13% of its sales there in 2022 and recently spent $450 million on a China-based inhaler factory.
AstraZeneca declined to clarify whether senior management had approved the quotes from Lei and wouldn’t say what his comments meant for the company’s plans in the country, according to Reuters. The company received $1.2 billion in American taxpayer money in 2020 to develop its COVID-19 vaccine, which brought in $4 billion in sales in 2021.
AstraZeneca did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Laurel Duggan is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Forbidden City” by Rafik Wahba.
