China starting to share tools world needs to fight pandemic
SHANGHAI — As hospitals and governments hunt desperately for respirators and surgical masks to protect doctors and nurses from the coronavirus pandemic, they face a difficult reality: The world depends on China to make them, and the country is only beginning to share.
China made half the world’s masks before the coronavirus emerged there, and it has expanded production nearly 12-fold since then. But it has claimed mask factory output for itself. Purchases and donations also brought China a big chunk of the world’s supply from elsewhere.
Now worries about mask supplies are rising. As the virus’s global spread escalates, governments around the world are restricting exports of protective gear, which experts said could worsen the pandemic.
That has put growing pressure on China to meet the world’s needs, even as it continues to grapple with the coronavirus itself. Although government data suggests China has brought infection rates under control, epidemiologists warn that its outbreak could flare again as officials loosen travel limits and more people return to work.
Peter Navarro, an adviser to President Donald Trump on manufacturing and trade, contended on Fox Business last month that China had essentially taken over factories that make masks on behalf of U.S. companies. Beijing, he said, had opted to “nationalize, effectively, 3M, our company.”
In a statement, the Minnesota-based manufacturer said most of the masks it makes at its factory in Shanghai had been sold within China even before the outbreak.
It declined to comment on when exports
China might resume.
China may be easing its grip as the world’s needs grow. Tan Qunhong, general manager of a small manufacturer of disposable masks in central China, said that she had filled the government’s purchase orders and was starting to resume exports. The Chinese government is also shipping masks abroad as part of goodwill packages.
Other manufacturers said the Chinese government is still claiming all the masks that their factories in the country make. “Mask exports are still not authorized, but we are following the situation every day,” said Guillaume Laverdure, chief operating officer of Medicom, a Canadian manufacturer that makes 3 million masks a day at its Shanghai factory.
Much as it dominates manufacturing of cars, steel, electronics and other necessities, China is essential to the world’s supply of protective medical gear. Most of what it makes are the disposable surgical masks worn by health professionals. It makes a
from smaller number of N95 respirator masks, which provide more filtration for doctors and nurses.
The general public does not need to wear masks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But demand for surgical masks has skyrocketed in China, where police require anyone who goes out in public to wear a mask.
Although companies said China is claiming virtually all mask output, the Chinese government said it had never issued a regulation prohibiting mask exports and was willing to work with other countries.
China did not just stop selling masks; it also bought up much of the rest of the world’s supply. According to official data, China imported 56 million respirators and masks in the first week after the January lockdown of the city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged.
On Jan. 30, the last day for which data is available, China managed to import 20 million respirators and surgical masks in just 24 hours.