Advertisement
Opinion | US paranoia about China is misplaced and it’s now impeding global action to stop the coronavirus spread
- The US continues to drive the global economy. It must move beyond this distraction and raise its education standards to beat back China’s challenge
- If the world is to stop Covid-19 in its tracks, China has to be seen as part of the solution, not the problem
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
It has often been said that in war, truth is the first casualty. Whether it’s because of America’s trade war with China or America’s war with itself, in the war against the coronavirus, truth has, at least, been severely wounded. One of the ugly truths that has got short shrift is the extent to which US paranoia towards China has helped feed the panic and the pandemic.
On January 30, the World Health Organisation declared a global health emergency over the spread of the coronavirus. Within hours of the declaration, the Trump administration went on the attack. It ignored the WHO advice and issued a Level 4 travel advisory on China, while Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross further inflamed and politicised the situation by saying in an interview that Covid-19 was a reason for businesses to rethink their supply chain strategies and the result could be more jobs for Americans.
January 30 was not the time to go on the attack; it was the time to cooperate and coordinate. Neither viruses nor economic contagion respect borders. In every other instance when the world was faced with a virus outbreak, cooperation and coordination was needed to contain it.
Other than the WHO “Solidarity” clinical trials to find a coronavirus treatment, there is little in the way of a cooperative and coordinated strategy to deal with this challenge. In fact, President Donald Trump’s xenophobic tweets reflect the opposite.
America’s paranoia about China is, at best, a distraction as the world tries to focus on bringing the coronavirus under control. American paranoia about China replacing it as the world’s pre-eminent power is misplaced, or, at least, premature.
Advertisement