China’s Battle Against Covid-19

« China’s Battle Against Covid-19 » is a must for anyone who wishes to understand the zeitgeist of the early days of the Covid-19 response in China, and the probable future of the world and globalization.

The 27 minutes documentary is divided in four chapters of equal length : China’s battle against Covid-19 / The new enemy of Mankind; Action speaks louder than words; United we stand; After the epidemic outbreak. Thirteen personalities from distinct but connected backgrounds discuss and share their insight on the issue.

The Covid-19 has put the world’s different systems to the toughest test.

We all know how China’s system has been so successful over the past 40 years in achieving amazing goals of lifting people out of poverty, creating jobs, giving people opportunities they couldn’t ever have imagined. Here again, within a week of identifying the unknown virus, China successfully sequenced it and reported the genetic information to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is an unique feat.

The documentary goes through all the stages of the fight against the Covid-19. It is particularly interesting to watch it now, when we see all the lessons not learned from different countries and regions in the world. The interviews take us from the unexpected first appearance of the Covid-19, to the understanding of what it was, and how the new unknown pandemic was dealt with at the earliest stage. Before finding the right path, when no one knew what was happening, the shortcomings, the setbacks and the missed opportunities are analyzed to see where things have fragmented and how it was so quickly fixed – a lesson for today and (heaven forfend) future times. A stout address is made for the need of a robust expert system to make the judgement right at the start, when early signs are always incomplete. The documentary also explains how China begun the urgent mobilization of national resources, the construction of two hospitals with negative air pressure rooms in two weeks, as more than 40,000 medical personnel volunteered from other provinces, with support from the People’s Liberation Army, all came to care for the overloaded Wuhan hospitals.

The documentary could also provide an answer to western media of late January 2020. In the light of today’s achievement, how China dealt with the Covid-19 is the proof, not of the failure as the western phrased it, but of the vitality and validity of the Chinese system. Bigger the problem, bigger the challenge, the more effective the Chinese system seems to become. Now, if anything can be said, is that China’s political setup is a right one; with a very strong governance system, from the grassroots to the decision makers, China has shown to the world it’s capacity to correct itself, to mobilize its resources, thinking ahead, thinking strategically, while building, organizing, and treating all in one breath.. A poem by Pr. He Yafei’s, briefly shown, sums up the spirit: One Country shall be of One mind to work hard, be of One heart to fight the epidemic. 

China – and now the world – is facing a very severe crisis, but this crisis will not fundamentally change the course of China’s history; the Chinese renaissance is here to stay, and it is going to change the world. Fronting the worst, the world has seen a resilient China. China absorbed the Covid-19 shock, and when one declares victory over such a crisis, one becomes stronger; a few scholars even arguing that it might accelerate the Chinese renaissance. China’s huge influence in the global supply chain and industry is now a fact, and will most likely not be undermined by the epidemic. It’s engine is still full of power. In the latest IMF estimates, by 2024, China’s share is expected to grow to 21,4% of the world’s economy, while the contribution from the EU and the US will deep to 14,6% and 13,9% respectively.

This video should also be must-watch for anyone concerned of how certain countries are dealing with their own outbreak. Especially now, when this can be compared with the response of the West who had a 2 months advance warning – time China never had to prepare itself. With all the time and knowledge the West should have had, less excusable are the mistakes that are now being made.

On an optimist note for the world, WHO judges that the Covid-19 is not only a super epidemic that has spread across the globe, but is also a large infectious epidemic that might be controlled for the first time of human history.

In order of appearance:

• Dr. John Olson, a scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), the birthplace of molecular biology; 
• Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease and critical care emergency medicine physician, at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security as a senior scholar;
• Dr. Ammar Ai-Baodani, Doctor in Yiwu, Zhejiang province;
• Pr. Lan Xue, Dean of the Schwarzmann College, Tsinghua University, member of National Expert Group on Covid-19, composed of 60+ persons in policies, ideas to be provided to the national leadership to direct China’s fight against the virus;
• Pr. HE Yafei, Former Deputy Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, currently Professor at Yenching Academy of Peking University;
• Pr. Martin Jacques, Senior Fellow, Cambridge University;
• Dr. Tang Tiantian, Attending Physician from the Respiratory Department of the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province;
• Mr Jean François Maljean, Musician of Belgium;
• Dr. Glele Aho Letonhan, Medical intern in Jinxian People’s Hospital, Jiangxi Province;
• Mr Neil Bush, Chairman of the George Herbert Walker Bush Foundation for US-China Relations;
• Mr Wang Haimin, Vice President of the COSCO Shipping Corporation;
• Mr David Gosset, a global affairs analyst, expert in international relations and sinologist, he founded the Euro-China Forum;
• Mr Ian Golding, Former vice President of the World Bank, Professor of Globalization and Development at Oxford Martin School.