Coronavirus: can China use the epidemic to win friends and influence people?

As the deadly disease spreads around the world, Beijing is keen to highlight its success in managing the outbreak, but analysts say it has to find the right balance

In the meantime, with many of its factories back in full production, China can help meet the growing need for medical face masks and other protective gear

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With its manufacturing bases back in full swing, China can help to supply the world with the millions of face masks it needs each month. Photo: AP

Published: 8:00am, 7 Mar 2020Updated: 8:00am, 7 Mar 2020

While the coronavirus epidemic appears to have reached a plateau in China, it is gaining momentum elsewhere in the world, and that could give Beijing an opportunity to show what it has to offer, analysts say.

As the world’s manufacturing hub, China is capable of tapping into its massive industrial capacity to supply face masks, hazmat suits and the raw materials used to make protective gear to nations in need.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health workers around the world need 89 million face masks, 76 million pairs of surgical gloves and 1.6 million pairs of goggles every month.

After weeks fighting the deadly outbreak, China experienced a severe shortage of those items in late January and early February, but as people have returned to work after the Lunar New Year holiday, the massive manufacturing machine has sprang back into action.

As of February 29, China’s daily output of protective face masks had increased 12-fold from the start of the month to 116 million units, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Monday.

As a result, Beijing has been able to donate masks to countries like South Korea and Japan, which provided similar help to China soon after the scale of the epidemic became clear.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said that the export of masks was not banned and that their sale would be in line with market principles.