To reassure the world China must be open
The Chinese government has reassured Donald Trump that it is doing all it can to contain the coronavirus outbreak and castigated Britain for overreacting. Perhaps the UK has overreacted, maybe it has not – it is very hard to tell when dealing with a regime like China’s. What the world wants is reassurance, but that is hard to get when there is a distinct lack of openness and independent reporting.
Building a hospital in 10 days to treat sufferers is impressive, but it obviously does not make outsiders feel any more secure. What is really needed, and what democracies are used to dealing with, is maximum transparency. If the coronavirus had started in Wisconsin rather than Wuhan, the media would have covered every infection, while lawyers and politicians would be breathing down the government’s neck. This does not mean the Americans would be any better at containing the outbreak, but we would know a lot more about it.
This does not happen in a communist state – and not only because the centre will not allow it but also because local officials are unused to being so honest or open. Yes, dictatorships can be ruthlessly efficient at mobilising resources, but there is also a bias towards telling those at the top what they want to hear, which undermines efficiency in a subtler, more damaging way. Never mind the rest of the world being in ignorance, is Beijing itself fully aware of what is going on?
It is not just global opinion that China has to consider. Popular anger at the handling of the coronavirus is obvious in reactions to the death of Li Wenliang, a doctor who tried to warn about the outbreak, was accused of “rumour-mongering” and then succumbed to the coronavirus at the age of 34 (most deaths are reportedly among the old). There was an unofficial, nationwide vigil for Mr Li held on Chinese social media.
Beijing has therefore permitted a degree of criticism, perhaps in recognition that citizens want to vent their frustrations and need some opportunity to do so: with 21st-century authoritarian regimes, dissent can be entertained and manipulated as well as suppressed. But people want more than just scraps of anger and information, and we are still a long way from the kind of transparency that we would expect in Britain and America. Its absence encourages anxiety, even paranoia, and undermines the efforts of Beijing to persuade the world that everything is under control.