All in the Same Boat
Pandemic shows need to boost international cooperation
Twelve years ago, when an earthquake struck Wenchuan, a county in southwest China, Italy was the first country to send a medical team to support the relief work. This year again, when China fought the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in January, Italy provided urgently needed medical supplies.
China reciprocated the support weeks later when Italy grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. A charter flight carrying Chinese medical experts and supplies alighted at the Leonardo da Vinci International Airport in Rome on March 12. “We are ready to share China’s hard-won diagnostic and treatment guidelines as well as our firsthand experience,” Lu Ming, a staff with the National Health Commission’s International Cooperation Department and a member of the team, told China National Radio.
On March 18, the second team of Chinese medical experts arrived in Milan. They carried a banner quoting ancient Roman philosopher Seneca, “We are waves of the same sea, leaves of the same tree, and flowers of the same garden.” A week later, the third team landed in Rome.
The Chinese experts, who specialize in respiratory and infectious diseases, intensive care and traditional Chinese medicine, visited hospitals and health labs with suggestions on prevention, control and treatment.
“We value the collaboration and information provided by our Chinese counterparts who have accumulated valuable experience in dealing with the outbreak,” Nicola Petrosillo, a researcher with Italy’s National Institute for Infectious Diseases, told China Central Television. Italy is in great need of Chinese experience and medical assistance, he added.
Michele Geraci, former Under Secretary of State at the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, said in an interview with Nanfang Daily, a Chinese newspaper, that people living in Italy appreciate China’s help at this difficult time and the message of solidarity it conveys.
The Chinese experts have been sharing their clinical diagnosis and treatment skills with their Iranian counterparts since the end of February. Iran has designated hospitals for COVID-19 cases and adopted centralized treatment, as followed in China, and the team’s other recommendations.
Chinese experts have also been sent to Serbia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Laos and the Philippines to help assess the epidemic situation and local medical conditions, and assist in drawing up a roadmap for prevention and control work. The first deployment of Chinese medical professionals in the Latin American and Caribbean region has also been made at the request of the Venezuelan Government.
Diversified assistance
On March 23, during his phone conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-sisi, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the global spread of COVID-19 has shown once again that mankind is one community that shares weal and woe. He stressed that all countries must unite and work together to jointly cope with the pandemic.
Deng Boqing, Vice Chairman of the China International Development Cooperation Agency, said China’s foreign assistance policy is guided by the ideas of reciprocity—“you throw a peach to me, I give you a white jade for friendship,” and that “a friend in need is a friend indeed.”
The international community gave great support during the most difficult period of China’s fight against the disease. China, in turn, has offered technological products, solutions and its experience in fighting the epidemic to the rest of the world, according to Xu Nanping, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology, at a press conference on March 26.
The three teams that went to Italy, for example, took with them test kits, intensive care unit facilities, portable ultrasound equipment, protective materials and medicines. As the blood plasma of recovered patients contains effective antibodies against the virus, the team also took such plasma with them.
Besides, the China Silk Road Fund, a fund designed to finance the Belt and Road Initiative, has also donated masks and test reagents to the Italian Civil Protection Agency and the northwestern region of Lombardy.
Chinese experts and officials are holding international video conferences to exchange ideas with foreign health experts. Two platforms have been created to share Chinese research findings, Xu said. One of the platforms, a database, has been accessed by visitors from 152 countries and regions.
The Chinese Government has given 120 countries and four international organizations masks, protective suits, test kits, ventilators and other assistance, Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on March 31. Local governments have donated medical items to their sister cities in more than 50 countries.
The Jack Ma Foundation, the charitable organization of Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, has donated medical supplies to 140 countries and regions. On April 6, it announced a second batch of donation for African countries with poor public health systems and limited capacity.
Some countries have requested Chinese assistance in their commercial procurement, and China has recommended qualified exporters to them, Hua said.
The Chinese authorities have also tightened regulatory measures to ensure the quality of the exported medical supplies. Exporters of medical products including COVID-19 test kits, medical face masks, protective suits, ventilators and infrared thermometers are required to provide extra documentation when they go through customs clearance since April 1.
They should declare that the products have been officially registered in China and meet the quality-control standards of their export destinations, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The customs will release the exports based on certificates of registration approved by medical product administrations.
Call for solidarity
During a phone call with Xi on March 12, UN Secretary General António Guterres said the world body appreciates China’s assistance to countries facing difficulties, adding that China’s support is vital to multilateralism and the UN looks forward to China playing an important leading role in international affairs.
On April 3, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell on the phone. Borrell said the EU appreciates China’s support and assistance to itself and member states and fully recognizes China’s constructive role in the global response to COVID-19 and its tradition of helping other countries in need.
Viruses respect no borders and all countries rise and fall together in times like this. Only by coming together can the international community ultimately defeat COVID-19, Borrell added.
Some in the international community have called the pandemic the curse of globalism. In response, Wang Huiyao, President of the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank, stressed that the pandemic reveals not the failure of globalization, but the need to innovate global governance systems and boost international cooperation.
“The coronavirus has caused a global crisis. However, if we believe globalization will go into reverse or countries should decouple to protect themselves, then we are wrong,” he said.
Wang Huiyao called for improving and innovating the global governance of migration. “Especially, we should establish an emergency mechanism to regulate transnational movement of people when an outbreak occurs like this time to minimize the impact,” he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic is a major public health emergency that has spread the fastest, caused the most extensive infections and been the hardest to contain since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
With joint efforts of the whole nation, a positive trend in preventing and controlling the epidemic has prevailed in China, while the resumption of production and normal life is quickening.
But the disease poses a “formidable challenge” to global public health security as it has been spreading rapidly in the world. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 had affected more than 200 countries and regions with over 1.13 million confirmed cases by April 5.
Virus knows no national borders, and the epidemic distinguishes no races. Only with solidarity and cooperation can the international community prevail over the pandemic and safeguard the common home of humanity.
Upholding the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, China has been timely releasing information on COVID-19 since the onset in an open, transparent and responsible manner, unreservedly sharing with WHO and the international community its experience in epidemic response and medical treatment, and strengthening cooperation on scientific research.
It has also provided assistance to all parties to the best of its ability.
Disclosure of information
Since the outbreak, the Chinese Government has released information about the epidemic in a timely, open, transparent and responsible manner, actively responded to concerns of all sides, and enhanced cooperation with the international community.
On December 30, 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission sent out an urgent notification to medical institutions under its jurisdiction about an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause in the capital city of Hubei Province in central China.
On receiving the report of the outbreak, the National Health Commission (NHC) dispatched a working group and an expert team to Wuhan to guide epidemic response and conduct onsite investigations.
One day later, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission released its first briefing on the outbreak on its website, confirming 27 cases and warning the public not to go to enclosed public places or gather in large crowds. The residents were also advised to wear face masks when going out. From then on, the commission had released briefings on the outbreak in accordance with the law.
The NHC started to provide updates via its official website and its new media platform on a daily basis from January 21.
WHO, relevant countries and regions, as well as China’s Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have been regularly informed about the outbreak since January 3. Starting from that day, China began to inform the U.S. of the outbreak and response measures on a regular basis.
On January 8, when an expert evaluation team from the NHC initially identified a new coronavirus as the cause of the epidemic, heads of Chinese and U.S. centers for disease control and prevention talked over the phone to discuss technical exchanges and cooperation.
Starting February 3, the English website of the NHC started to release epidemic information simultaneously.
From January 3 to February 3, China gave the U.S. briefings on the epidemic information and control measures 30 times, including sharing with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s project manager in China information about diagnosis and treatment guidelines, prevention and control guidelines, and the link of the novel coronavirus database that China shares with the world in real time.
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke over the phone about the epidemic with the leaders of dozens of countries and regions as well as international organizations, including U.S. President
Donald Trump and UN Secretary General António Guterres.
During a phone call with Trump on February 7, Xi said China has kept WHO as well as relevant countries and regions, including the U.S., posted on the epidemic with an open, transparent and responsible attitude, and invited WHO and other experts to conduct field visits in Wuhan.
The NHC gave briefings on China’s anti-epidemic efforts and measures at the first meeting of the Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation health working group on February 8.
On February 12, specialists from the NHC joined a China-eu teleconference on Covid-19-related technical exchanges, describing the latest developments in the epidemic, prevention and control measures, and the situation of international cooperation.
Starting February 16, a China-who joint expert team, which consisted of 25 experts from China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, the U.S. and WHO, conducted a nine-day field visit in China, inspecting cities including Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Wuhan.
Under China’s joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council, a press conference has been held every day since January 27, updating data on a daily basis, including new confirmed cases, severe cases, deaths and suspected cases, and giving briefings on the country’s measures to fight the epidemic and minimize its impact on social and economic development.
The NHC shared on February 25 updated technical guidelines on COVID-19 response with a number of countries and regional organizations.
Research cooperation
In the global fight against the coronavirus, China has attached great importance to the role of scientific research, with scientists releasing their latest research results.
China has timely shared with the world the whole genome sequence, primers and probes
of the coronavirus, and diagnosis and treatment guidelines and other technical documents with more than 100 countries and over 10 international and regional organizations.
By carrying out timely technical exchanges with the international community, such as WHO, the U.S., and countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, Chinese scientists and health experts shared their knowledge about the virus with global peers to help them develop test kits and adopt responsive measures.
After the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) succeeded in isolating the first novel coronavirus strain on January 7, an expert team from the NHC made public the pathogen two days later, saying a new type of coronavirus was identified as the cause of the viral pneumonia in Wuhan.
On January 12, China CDC, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences submitted to WHO the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus, which was published by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and shared globally.
As Chinese researchers and doctors deepened their understanding of the coronavirus, the NHC updated different versions of guidelines on diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 and made them available globally.
Assistance to other countries
China has also helped other countries fight the pandemic to the best of its capacity, providing medical supplies or sending medical experts.
It announced a donation of $20 million to WHO on March 7 to support international cooperation in the fight against COVID-19.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at a press conference in Beijing on March 8 that while overcoming its own difficulties, China is willing to provide masks and other medical protection materials to relevant countries to support them in fighting the pandemic.
The first batch of Chinese medical experts carrying medical supplies arrived in Italy on March 12. More medical experts and supplies from China arrived in the European country later to help with its epidemic prevention and control efforts.
Medical experts and supplies were also sent to countries such as Iran, Iraq, Serbia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Laos and Venezuela.
By March 31, the Chinese Government had provided material assistance including medical masks, N95 filters, protective suits, nucleic acid testing reagents and ventilators to 120 countries and four international organizations.
Local governments in China donated medical supplies to more than 50 countries. And Chinese enterprises donated medical supplies to more than 100 countries and international organizations.
Global recognition
WHO said on January 9 on its website that preliminary identification of the novel coronavirus in a short period of time was a notable achievement.
On January 13, it issued another statement on the discovery of the novel coronavirus cases in Thailand, pointing out that China’s sharing of the genome sequence enabled more countries to quickly diagnose patients.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on January 24 thanked on social media the Chinese Government for its cooperation and transparency, saying the Chinese Government has been successful in isolating and sequencing the virus quickly and has shared that genome sequence with WHO and the international community.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany appreciates China’s efforts to respond in a timely manner, stay open and transparent, and actively carry out international cooperation.
On February 24, the China-who joint expert team held a press conference in Beijing. The team members said China’s unprecedented public health responses to the COVID-19 outbreak have yielded notable results in slowing the spread of the epidemic and blocking human-to-human transmission of the virus, preventing or at least delaying hundreds of thousands of cases.