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A Chinese spokesperson wrote on Twitter:

As of Apr. 20, China had provided the US with over 2.46 bn masks, meaning 7 masks for each in the US, plus nearly 5,000 ventilators & many others. Hope that could save more lives.
Hua Chunying 华春莹 via Twitter

As per the comments, the timeframe is relevant. The tweet was made during the coronavirus pandemic, so I feel it's natural to interpret it as implying these masks should be useful for combating COVID-19. So masks during or prior to 2019 should not be included.

The claim is repeated by the Xinhua news agency, which continued: In recent weeks, China's daily output of face masks has skyrocketed to 100 million masks. The New York Times (April 11) also reported a daily production of 116 million, and said this about exports:

Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesman, said at the ministry’s daily news briefing on Friday that from March 1 through April 4, China exported 3.86 billion masks, 2.8 million coronavirus test kits, 2.4 million infrared thermometers and 16,000 ventilators.

This makes it sound like these mask imports took place in recent weeks or months. I didn't immediately find evidence either way.

Question: In response to COVID-19, as of 20 April 2020, has China provided the US with over 2.46 billion masks?

Update: Similar claims have been made by other Chinese spokespersons:

...China has provided the U.S. with 1.864bn masks...
Cui Tiankai, via Twitter, 21 April 2020

...China has provided the U.S. with: - 1.864 bln masks...
Geng Shuang, quoted by CGTN via Twitter, 20 April 2020

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Rebecca J. Stones
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    Since when? If it's counting every mask in the past 20 years, it's probably correct, but not "notable". – Daniel R Hicks Apr 27 '20 at 01:52
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    I guess they "gave them back" (joking) https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/47236/did-china-import-2-billion-masks-earlier-this-year-to-control-covid-19?rq=1 – Fizz Apr 27 '20 at 02:13
  • Would you be willing to look through the answers and maybe leave some comments on what else you'd like to see? – Barry Harrison Jul 10 '21 at 04:29

2 Answers2

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In response to the coronavirus pandemic, no, China has not provided the US with ~2.5 billion masks. This article clearly shows the records of the imports, with mask imports from China actually decreasing by 20% from February, 2019. Interestingly, it is actually quite the opposite with the US providing China with ~$15 million worth of masks than usual.

However, it could be possible that this China has sold 2.5 billion masks to the US, but not just due to the outbreak. The same source shows that in the previous decade, the US bought roughly $21.6 billion of masks, which could be the origins of this 2.46 billion number.

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I hope this is helpful, please let me know if you want any clarification.

Fizz
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Ankit
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    "decreasing by 20%" from when till when? (I see it says it's prolly due to the trade war and the 15% tariff, so that might provide a rough time frame.) – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 05:37
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    Also "China is the world’s biggest exporter of medical face masks. It produced about half of the world’s $11.7 billion supply in 2018 alone, the United Nations’ latest trade data shows. And the U.S. has long been its biggest customer. " So I strongly doubt the US bought only $1.8 billion *over a decade*. I cannot find the 1.8 figure in the article you linked. – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 05:42
  • @Fizz Hi, I revisited the website and realized that the graph was just for february, so a rough estimate would be ~$21.6 billion in the entire decade, not 1.8. Thanks for pointing out this error. As for how I got the 1.8, It is from adding the data points on the graph. The 20% is compared to the previou febuary. I fixed all the issues, so I would appreciate if you remove the down vote. – Ankit Apr 28 '20 at 06:14
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    What graph? I don't see any graphs in the article. – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 06:59
  • @Fizz I'm not really sure why you are not seeing any graphs. There are two graphs on the page. I tested the link again and it shows the graphs. Maybe it is that you don't have adobe flash or something? I don't know, but the graphs are there. – Ankit Apr 28 '20 at 13:24
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    The same graphs are [here](https://infogram.com/imports-1hxr4zq9zype4yo) and [here](https://infogram.com/exports-1hke60w7y9r145r) – Brian Z Apr 28 '20 at 13:51
  • @Fizz , if you can't see them in the USA today article, it is present in the link that Brian provided. – Ankit Apr 28 '20 at 15:11
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    Is it not feasible that masks imports spiked by a factor of 10 in March and early April? – Oddthinking Apr 28 '20 at 16:51
  • @Oddthinking Possible? Yes. Likely? No. Allow me to explain. Knowing them and their brutally efficient system, it is probable that China significantly ramped up their production of masks in those months. However, it is highly unlikely that the US increased imports 10-fold for various reasons. 1) The US already had an extremely large amount of masks when compared to other countries. The Secratary of Health and Human Services predicted that the US only needed 300 million, so they wouldn't buy 2.54 billion. 2) The US government was infamously slow to order new masks. 3) China sold to others too – Ankit Apr 28 '20 at 19:41
  • The graphs don't show in the https://eu.usatoday.com/ version of the story. I guess they are "US only". Weird for a publication to do that. I can see them at the links @Brian Z provided. – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 22:34
  • Re "The Secratary of Health and Human Services predicted that the US only needed 300 million, so they wouldn't buy 2.54 billion." That would be a helpful addition although, do note that purchases are decentralized in the US with states competing. Also a quick extrapolation of the Feb number shows that the US roughly buys $2.4 B worth of masks every year. It's possible the China propagandists just used/misinterpreted this number. – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 22:42
  • @Oddthinking: China supposedly massively ramped up production "the New York Times has reported [on March 23] that China is now producing 116 million masks a day, 12 times its supply prior to the outbreak.". See my linked q. So yeah, I think only the numbers for Feb as shown by USA Today aren't too conclusive. OTOH according to Bloomberg the US can only import masks made to US standards, which limits what they can import from the global stockpiles/production https://youtu.be/aswIeU9-mxU – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 22:48
  • @Oddthinking OTOH-OTOH, *Reason* reports the FDA has lifted the import restriction https://reason.com/2020/04/03/fda-will-lift-restrictions-on-face-mask-imports-toppling-another-pointless-regulation/ (And, more oddly, a few days before the Bloomberg video.) But then the FDA only gave an EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) for foreign-standard masks [on March 24 actually], which means they can quickly revoke it. – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 22:57
  • @Oddthinking "On March 29, Trump announced an operation called Project Air Bridge to bring medical supplies from overseas. The project’s first flight came from China on March 29 [...] Project Air Bridge has delivered more than 760,000 N95 masks, 600 million gloves, 52 million surgical masks in addition to other supplies including surgical gowns, thermometers and face shields, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesperson said. Those supplies came from China, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, India, Honduras and Mexico." – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 23:09
  • That's from https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/23/marco-rubio/did-china-halt-exports-face-masks-us/ which continues "From China alone, there have been over 133 million units of imported N95 masks, gloves, surgical masks, surgical gowns, thermometers and face shields, FEMA said." So there was probably a surge in end-of-March, but it's unclear how much exactly. Also, US states bought directly, not through FEMA. https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/47449/is-the-us-government-seizing-ppe-supplies-to-resell-them-with-a-markup – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 23:10
  • @Oddthinking: According to PIIE the US imports $ 3.2 B worth of medical masks annually so (1) most imports indeed probably come from China but (2) that figure doesn't seem to include equivalent masks used e.g. in construction (NIOSH vs FDA approval). So the total figure of imported masks including non-medical, but equivalent ones could be substantially higher. https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/covid-19-trumps-curbs-exports-medical-gear-put-americans-and – Fizz Apr 28 '20 at 23:22
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    $21.6 billion for 2.46 billion masks is about $9 per mask. That seems really high, especially if it's supposed to be wholesale pricing. – Nate Eldredge Apr 29 '20 at 03:54
  • @NateEldredge, no actually, N-95 masks usually sell at $10-$15 – Ankit Apr 29 '20 at 03:56
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    @Ankit: Really? [This article](https://www.texastribune.org/2020/03/31/texas-company-offered-n95-masks-amid-coronavirus-6-times-usual-price/) estimates $1 (pre-COVID). – Nate Eldredge Apr 29 '20 at 03:59
  • @NateEldredge Huh, that wierd I could have sworn I saw they were sold at 10-15. I will send the link once I find it again – Ankit Apr 29 '20 at 04:19
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In response to COVID-19, as of 20 April 2020, has China provided the US with over 2.46 billion masks?

No.

Here is a report published by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank. The think tank based their analysis on data released by the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC), a government agency responsible for all imports and exports in China.

According to the report, the US imported 69,963 kg of face masks from China in March and April of 2020, when the coronavirus started spreading to the US in earnest (Table 2/Tabelle 2). This is a 31% increase over 2019. To have imported 2.46 billion face masks requires that each mask weigh less than 0.028 grams. Needless to say, face masks weigh over a gram each. (Here's a company with face masks that weigh 3.5 g each.)

(Of course, face masks differ depending on manufacturer. Assuming a face mask is made of polypropylene fabric weighing 65 grams per square meter, and not accounting for non-filtering components such as the straps of the mask, each face mask can only be 4.375 square centimeters in order for 69,963 kg of face masks to equal 2.46 billion face masks. Think of something 2 centimeters wide (like your thumb) and 2 centimeters long. That's about how big each mask would be.)

Barry Harrison
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