Washington/Beijing: Chinese leader Xi Jinping is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with Covid-19, a US official said Saturday, according to media reports.

Despite the social and economic impact of the virus, Xi "is unwilling to take a better vaccine from the West, and is instead relying on a vaccine in China that's just not nearly as effective against Omicron," US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said, Reuters reported.

"Seeing protests and the response to it is countering the narrative that he likes to put forward, which is that China is so much more effective at government," Haines said.

While recent protests are not a threat to Communist Party rule, they could affect his personal standing, Haines said.

"It's, again, not something we see as being a threat to stability at this moment, or regime change or anything like that," she said while adding: "How it develops will be important to Xi's standing."

China has been administering domestically produced vaccines which some studies have suggested are not as effective as some foreign ones, the Reuters report said.

The country has not approved any foreign Covid vaccines.

Lately, China's daily Covid cases have shot up, but some cities are gradually relaxing testing and quarantine rules after the zero-Covid policy triggered a sharp economic downturn and public protests.

Experts opine that easing virus prevention measures amid rising Covid cases could come with big risks.