China deserves both blame and praise in fighting outbreak
- The world needs a more balanced assessment of Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic as fair criticism and proper acknowledgement will help its current containment efforts as well as future response to health crises
China has been roundly criticised around the world for unleashing a potential global pandemic. No doubt much of the criticism is warranted.
Ironically, though, Beijing’s current handling of the coronavirus epidemic has been more transparent than that of any previous health crisis, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) outbreak in 2002-2003. To state this is not to absolve the country of responsibility but to make a more balanced judgment.
People should know that China is at least trying to act more responsibly. Knowing that may help calm irrational fears about the spread of the virus as well as discourage discrimination Chinese and even Asian-looking people now reportedly face overseas.
After the initial mishaps in Wuhan, Beijing has mobilised full national resources, published timely cases and data online, and shared genetic sequencing and other domestic medical studies about the virus with international health bodies and experts.
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To bypass compromised and untrustworthy information provided by Wuhan officials, the central government has partially opened up social media and used big data methods to collect views and happenings on the ground. There is also the controversial draconian method of closing off multiple cities besides Wuhan.
Pope Francis and the head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, have praised China’s efforts. Interestingly, this has exposed both to criticism. Some claim Francis is just trying to make nice because the Vatican is moving towards rapprochement with Beijing. The WHO, they say, has become too close to China and has been slow to declare a global emergency. Well, if you don’t trust their assessment, how about White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, who is a well-known anti-China hawk?
“So far the Chinese have been more transparent certainly than in past crises and we appreciate that,” O’Brien said in an interview with CBS’s news programme Face the Nation.
A little perspective is helpful. Let’s recall the mutated H1N1/09 flu virus that started in Mexico and the United States in 2009. It was labelled a pandemic by the WHO, spread to every country in the world, infected between 11 and 21 per cent of the world population and killed an estimated 105,700 to 395,600 people in the first 12 months.
How many people remember that health crisis today? But if those numbers were to result from the current coronavirus outbreak, everyone would be screaming Armageddon.
