Advertisement
Coronavirus pandemic
OpinionComment
Hannan Hussain
Hannan Hussain

Opinion | Why the Trump administration’s case against China’s mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak does not hold up

  • The US drastically reduced its CDC personnel in Beijing shortly before the outbreak, hampering its disease prevention apparatus, and its officials seem ill-informed
  • China shared the coronavirus genome sequence early on and has extended help to many countries, including US allies

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Cardboard cut-outs of US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping wearing face masks stand outside a gift shop in Moscow on March 23. The US has said China is suppressing information related to Covid-19, while China says the US is stigmatising its efforts. Photo: Reuters
Hannan Hussain

Less than a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of constantly denying information to curb the pandemic, Washington’s diplomatic offensive against Beijing took a big hit. Reuters revealed on March 26 that the Trump administration had cut its staff presence at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Beijing by more than two-thirds over the past two years.

Advertisement

The CDC is the United States’ leading disease fighting agency and has a history of research collaboration with Beijing on contagious disease outbreaks.

The decision to reduce the number of US epidemiologists and other health professionals in Beijing weakens the US case against China, which includes President Donald Trump’s claim that China denied US experts early information on the coronavirus outbreak.
A key component of Beijing’s counter-narrative is that the US has been stigmatising its efforts against the pandemic and is sidestepping global collaboration on Covid-19.

Last week’s developments also help widen the discord between Trump and the CDC, which plays a key role in Washington’s international coordination on Covid-19.

Advertisement
Advertisement