Global test of governance is on
▶ China leads in resuming economy, West’s policy drags world down
With more European countries and US states planning to reopen the economy as the coronavirus pandemic has taken a heavy toll on their economies, the world is now entering a global test of governance in which China is now a leader in work resumption. However, Chinese experiences have not been taken by the West, which adopts more aggressive policies, which mean more risks and could lead the world to a more dangerous place.
For China, consolidating the phased results of epidemic control and accelerating business resumption is a daunting task, as the reopening criteria is much stricter in China compared to that in the West. This will be a competition that China can’t lose, analysts said.
China had paid a heavy social and economic price in the past three months in its fight against COVID-19. Multiple systematic advantages, including top-down effective governance and ability to mobilize social resources, have helped the country get through the most difficult time and gradually back to normalcy. China was the first to reopen society as the pandemic continues globally and set the example for other nations, but political and ideological bias, intensified by a US-led public opinion war against China, would hinder Western nations from taking Chinese experiences as reference in cautiously resuming business activities amid a resurgence of sporadic cases, analysts said.
Nevertheless, China is steadily moving forward and will be the ultimate winner of this test, and such collective confidence of winning this battle stems from the actual strengths and fundamentals of Chinese society.
When some economic advisers of US President Donald Trump highlighted the importance of resuming business in some states on Sunday, as part of the White House’s major push to reopen the US economy, countries across Europe are easing their lockdowns after about two months of travel restrictions and a halt in commercial activities. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged Britons to get back to work as he released a three-step roadmap to recovery from the coronavirus, according to a speech aired on Sunday. And France has taken its first steps out of confinement measures. Starting Monday, shops in the country will reopen and people would be allowed out of their homes, media reported.
However, countries are reemerging from the COVID-19 cautiously as the pandemic continues to ravage communities, and the rate of infection remains far too high for the wider opening of facilities like schools.
“The curves of infections in some European countries are downward, and reopening their economies is the key issue for countries across the world, as the world is likely to experience multiple waves of outbreaks in the coming months,” said Chen Xi, an assistant professor of public health at Yale University
Though some analysts said it is not the right time for Western countries to lift restrictions, especially if they follow China’s work resumption criteria – the strictest one in the world – they are not even close to being ready for safely lifting the lockdowns. The policies of resuming production in order to save economies is a decision that officials in Europe and the US have to make, either for their own political careers or for upcoming elections, a vivid example of how politics in the West serves interests of a few elites, not well-being of the public.
In comparison, the Chinese government has to make sure to fulfill those two tasks – prevent infection and resume work – “which would be more challenging,” said Wang Yiwei, director of the Center for European Union studies at the Renmin University of China in Beijing.
However, the poor performance of some Western countries in fighting the pandemic has largely increased the risks of a resurgence of the outbreak, and such rash and reckless policies could make the anti-virus battle a protracted one, and those ambivalent policies are also heavily weighing on the global recovery, posing a severe threat to the resumption of trade activities and people-to-people exchanges, analysts said.
“The result of blindly reopening society and resuming economic activity for political reasons would be unimaginable as it would not only lead to an infection resurgence but also directly drag down the global fight against the epidemic,” said Diao Daming, an associate professor at the Renmin University of China.
Some analysts also noted that the irresponsible decision of some Western countries could hurt China in the post-pandemic recovery.
Winning the competition
While more countries and regions join the ranks of those resuming work and production, some analysts see it as a subtle competition to explore the restart of the economy. The US and China are also believed to be two countries affected most by this process. One is recording the highest infection numbers and deaths, while the other is carefully striking a balance between reopening its economy and fending off risks of a second wave, in addition to an extra task: The mad and absurd blame game that Washington has launched to undermine Beijing.
The National Health Commission said on Monday that in the past 14 days, seven provinces and regions reported new domestically transmitted cases, raising the risk of domestic clusters infection. As of mid-April, the average production resumption rate of Chinese enterprises above a certain scale has reached 99 percent, and the rate of private companies has surpassed 90 percent.
The battle has been a major test of the national governance system and capacity and the Chinese society has been facing unprecedented challenges, and has been urged to remain on high alert while further accelerating work resumption in the coming months, according to Xinhua.
More efforts are being made to create synergies in helping enterprises regain growth momentum while coming up with more favorable policies, as GDP growth in the first quarter of 2020 fell 6.8 percent, casting a shadow on overall global recovery. While most people have resumed work in China, life has not been the same as the overall recovery remains sluggish. The services sector has recovered rather slowly in April despite lifting lockdown, official data showed.
“This is our new normal,” Wang said, noting that the country has to win this competition to reopen society while preventing the recurrence of coronavirus cases.