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Opinion
Best to stand united in times of crisis
- China and Russia are drawing closer together in the face of US isolationism and finger-pointing, but dividing into rivals camps is no good for the world
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Editorials represent the views of the South China Morning Post on the issues of the day.
China and Russia may have their own problems with the spread of the coronavirus but it has not stopped them pledging mutual support and drawing closer together, thanks in part to President Donald Trump. The US leader’s scapegoating of China for his country’s economic problems and the pandemic has helped strengthen Sino-Russia relations, showcased in a phone call between presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin in which they pledged cooperation. It was not the first time. Last December they exchanged warm words and thinly veiled criticism of the United States over the trade war when launching their nations’ first cross-border gas pipeline. US isolationist policies have brought the two sides closer. Now, as Trump was hosting a virtual summit of the Group of Seven industrial nations – excluding China and Russia – Xi and Putin pledged to counter the “politicisation” of the pandemic as Beijing faces a mounting backlash, along with the World Health Organisation, for its early handling of the outbreak.
With Russia now the biggest source of imported infections in China, 70 per cent of them Chinese citizens, both countries have moved to head off imported cross-border infection. Russia closed its direct borders with China in late January and suspended visa-free travel from the mainland. Last week Beijing closed checkpoints on land borders with Russia after more than 500 new cases were brought in by Chinese nationals.
The two have closed ranks against a US-led campaign to blame the pandemic on China and the WHO. Indeed the G7 meeting targeted the WHO, calling for reform of the agency. Xi said politicising and labelling the pandemic would do nothing for efforts to safeguard global health, and Putin rejected any attempt to discredit China.
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Beijing rightly makes the point that it is not China’s fault countries are paying the price for not heeding its repeated warnings and the urgings of the WHO that they should be prepared for a pandemic. China may be reaching out to Russia for support but they are not forming the kind of alliance seen during the Cold War. Nonetheless, this kind of outcome is not ideal. The world needs unity both to fight Covid-19 and to rebuild the economy. Finger-pointing and division into rival camps can do no one any good.
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