Beijing’s coronavirus-era diplomacy ‘is outflanking America’s’, but some cite overreach
- Both governments have underplayed the threat, whitewashed problems, blamed local officials and pointed fingers at each other
- ‘Trump has had an appalling response to the crisis. In some ways, he’s even followed the Xi Jinping model in trying to put political controls on information’
Beijing has run circles around Washington on the global diplomacy front during the coronavirus crisis, although the US has badly undercut its natural advantage even as China risks overplaying its hand.
That’s an early assessment by former officials, crisis management and China experts evaluating the two nations’ soft power – the ability to persuade rather than coerce – as the pandemic wreaks global havoc.
Both countries made mistakes – underplaying the threat, whitewashing problems, blaming local officials – and pointed fingers at each other, experts say.
During the crucial January-February period, censorship, scapegoating and a system that discourages reporting bad news spotlighted shortcomings in China’s one-party system. This allowed the disease to incubate and ultimately spread globally, they added.
Mistakes supposedly learned during China’s 2002-03 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) were repeated to deadly effect, leading to white-hot anger among ordinary Chinese and a battered reputation abroad.
But President Xi Jinping, increasingly aware of the outbreak’s threat to his power, took charge to slow the spread, deploying authoritarian methods not normally available to democracies.