COVID-19 and International Cooperation

How various nations’ responses to COVID-19 is a microcosm of mistrust among nations: a study of international cooperation to contain the coronavirus

A week ago before writing this article, COVID-19, the virus that has been ravaging among almost every single country on the planet was declared a global pandemic — a disease occurring over a wide geographic area and affecting an exceptionally high proportion of the population[1]. One must come to think about how we got this far, with countries abruptly closing their borders and people fighting for supplies as a last-ditch effort. Still, many experts have also warned that even though countries should be working together to contain the virus, the response of some world leaders “had been anything but global”[2]. As the virus creates a human health disaster of unknown proportion, resulting in supply chain disruptions and decreasing economic activity all over the world, somehow we find our governments playing catch-up as they realise that it’s too late to stop this pandemic from affecting millions of people.

Policymakers had been running shockingly similar disaster scenarios[3] to determine the best approach to take should an actual pandemic occur. One of the most important insights that the pandemic simulations brought is that early preventative actions are critical: it is essential to establish domestic and international trust among corporations, governments, workers and citizens before the crisis starts.[4] However, this cannot be achieved when governments have been placing their goals on expansionary fiscal policies rather than social policies. Most governments didn’t bother to set up suitable preparations for such outbreaks because it wouldn’t benefit them during their time in power. When the first cases appeared in early December[5] , the Chinese government responded by reprimanding doctors who warned of the new virus (one of the doctors, Li Wenliang[6] later died of the virus, which caused public discontent on Weibo before the comments were quickly deleted). Such under-preparedness is also seen in the World Health Organisation (WHO), who declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, a month after Chinese authorities alerted the WHO on December 31. Another insight is that communication is vital[6], but this has been incredibly hard to achieve due to deteriorating relationships between the government and its people, further amplified by the distrust between countries. This requires the need for consistent messaging and trusted sources of information, complicating the rise of social media and fake news, which further damages the credibility of scientists and health officials seeking to guide policy. Public confidence in domestic and international institutions has been slowly eroding as a result of online disinformation (such as the anti-vaccination movement). The lack of local and international trust is particularly an issue because a critical ingredient for addressing pandemics is public order and obedience to protocols. Unlike China, South Korea was willing to proactively test large numbers of people for the virus due to its rapid rise associated with the Shincheonji church showing large number of case detected, however, resulted in steep stock market declines and the imposition of blanket travel bans against the country and widespread discriminate treatment of Asians abroad.[7] Even in Hong Kong, we have seen proposed quarantine camps torched, and frequent protests on the situations of the pandemic. As compared to the 2003 SARS epidemic, the lack of trust towards Carrie Lam’s government is the vital factor to the discontent in the people.

There is no doubt that a lack of international cooperation was the primary cause for the pandemic. A virus knows no borders, and heightened mistrust among countries isn’t particularly helpful to getting high-level political leadership to organise themselves and prevent it from crossing borders. In this scenario, the race by medical workers to stop the virus is playing out against a backdrop of big-power diplomatic rivalry, between the traditional superpower United States and the rising superpower China[8]. Trade tensions had already resulted in the increased meddling of internal politics of other countries, growing military tensions around the globe. As these countries start to compete with each other, they begin to ignore the transnational nature of the threat as they need to minimise the downsides of their populations, economics, and hence their tenure. Activities such as sabotage and inhibiting information sharing is common[9], especially with the authoritarian nature of the Chinese Communist Party. As these countries are trying to extend their influence in international politics, organisations such as the World Health Organisation are increasingly caught in the middle, and unfortunately, the bias in its actions recently is too apparent. In a bid to restore and gain influence globally, China pledged USD 20 million to help the WHO to improve public health systems in developing countries [10]. This is a stark contrast to the White House’s “America First doctrine” - resulting in sharp cuts to U.S. financial contributions to WHO and the bill that Congress passed for USD 2.5 billion to fight the virus, not sparing a penny towards the organisation. [11] The result is evident: the reckless and delayed management of the pandemic under its director-general, who turned a blind eye to Wuhan after meeting with Xi in January, playing down the severity of the pandemic. He seemed to be more focused on politicising the crisis and even made a subtle change to its Q&A section on coronavirus to include “integrating Chinese traditional herbal medicine and Western medicine” to find a cure. [12] Politics might be the cause for the striking contrast in its response, including the 2020 United States Presidential Elections. Trump’s portrayal of the outbreak had been nothing but a perspective of pinning the blame on the Chinese, the Europeans, and downplaying the fact that it is his inability to act sooner to blame. Rather than focusing on cooperation, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has labelled the virus the “Wuhan virus”, while Trump is calling it the “Chinese virus”. This is angering Chinese officials and others who claim that the label promotes xenophobia, ignoring WHO guidelines[13]. China has also got increasingly bold by having its spokesperson claim that “it might be the U.S. army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan”, perpetuating a conspiracy theory with no evidence at all as they claim that their cases are falling[14].

Ironically, the Chinese seem to be gaining higher ground in its propaganda war on the coronavirus. China’s current strategy has been focused on presenting herself on the frontlines to save humanity amid the total collapse of the European Union to contain the spread, sending plane loads of masks, doctors and even ventilators to Europe, and Seattle to battle the crisis. [15] Chinese state news agency Xinhua published a photograph of one of the containers draped with the slogan “Unity makes strength” in French, Flemish and Chinese, a clear display of its not-so-subtle foreign policy, gaining praise from WHO, calling it a “heartwarming example of solidarity”[16]. On the other hemisphere, instead of focusing on cooperation (or any efforts to pull off a P.R. stunt), President Trump has faced questions over his reported attempt to secure exclusive American rights to a vaccine under development in Germany[17] which lead to severe backlash from the German government, who vowed to make any vaccine developed in Germany available to the world. Similarly, Serbia’s Prime Minister complained that “European solitary does not exist. That was a fairy tale” [18] after it was barred from importing critical medical supplies from the Union. European leaders also condemned a blanket U.S. travel ban over the European Continent (surprisingly excluding the United Kingdom, due to its close ties in the wake of Brexit), further fragmenting the relationship between the Western powers[19]. The trouble is, with the U.S. facing its credibility issues in recent years, China's false narrative threatens to spread as quickly as the coronavirus.

Works Cited

[1] “Definition of pandemic” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pandemic

[2][13][14][19] Joseph Stepansky, “Trump, coronavirus and the politics of a pandemic” Al-Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/trump-coronavirus-politics-pandemic-200313174546799.html#

[3][9] Samuel Brannen and Kathleen Hicks, “We Predicted a Coronavirus Pandemic. Here’s What Policymakers Could Have Seen Coming.” Politico, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/07/coronavirus-epidemic-prediction-policy-advice-121172

[5] Claire Felter and Lindsay Maizland, “What You Need to Know About the Coronavirus Outbreak” Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-you-need-know-about-coronavirus-outbreak

[6] “Chinese Doctor, Silenced After Warning of Outbreak, Dies From Coronavirus” The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/world/asia/chinese-doctor-Li-Wenliang-coronavirus.html

[7] Scott A. Snyder, “Long-Term Impacts of Coronavirus in South Korea”Council on Foreign Relations, https://www.cfr.org/blog/long-term-impacts-coronavirus-south-korea

[8][10] Colum Lynch, Robbie Gramer, “U.S. and China Turn Coronavirus Into a Geopolitical Football” Foreign Policy, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/11/coronavirus-geopolitics-china-united-states-trump-administration-competing-global-health-response/

[11][12] Bradley A. Thayer and Lianchao Han, “China and the WHO's chief: Hold them both accountable for pandemic” The Hill, https://thehill.com/opinion/international/487851-china-and-the-whos-chief-hold-them-both-accountable-for-pandemic

[15][16][18] Matthew Karanitschnig, “China is winning the coronavirus propaganda war” Politico, https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-china-winning-propaganda-war/

[17] Aitor Hernaández-Morales “Germany confirms that Trump tried to buy firm working on coronavirus vaccine” Politico, https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-confirms-that-donald-trump-tried-to-buy-firm-working-on-coronavirus-vaccine/