BEIJING: President Xi Jinping’s call for a concerted global effort in tackling the coronavirus pandemic has won the backing of experts from around the world.
Xi made the case in the bimonthly Qiushi Journal that international solidarity and cooperation were the “two most powerful weapons” in dealing with the crisis.
Martin Jacques, a British author and academic, said that by stressing the need for countries to unite and work together, Xi demonstrated again his ability to think on “a bigger scale” than some of his Western counterparts when it comes to coping with the pandemic. “The Chinese have a notion of the world the West has never had. The West is anchored to the notion of the nation state and this has been demonstrated in this crisis by the United States, in particular, rejecting multilateralism and seeing the world in terms of America first,” he said.
Xi, in his article published on April 16 in Qiushi Journal, the flagship magazine of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, wrote that the pandemic needed to be tackled on four fronts: conducting a resolute all-out global war against the outbreak; forging a collective response of control and treatment at the international level; supporting international organizations in playing active roles; and strengthening macroeconomic policy coordination.
Koh King Kee, the president of the Centre for New Inclusive Asia, a think tank based in Kuala Lumpur, said Xi was right to stress that a collective world response was now imperative. “Nations must put aside geopolitics and ideologies, be united and not be mired in finger-pointing or the blame game,” he said.
“Pandemics have killed more people than wars. The pandemic crisis is a grim reminder that a contagious virus knows no borders, ethnicities or political systems.”
Andy Mok, a senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, a Beijing-based think tank, said it was important that Xi placed emphasis on improving the global governance framework once the pandemic was over.
“Pandemics are only one new challenge. Global governance has to be up to the challenges in a new era of greater connectivity and interdependence. Without a united effort in strengthening and harmonizing overall governance, the world will fall short of achieving the goal of creating a prosperous and healthy future,” he said.
In the article, Xi outlined how China had dealt with the crisis, acting in an “open, transparent and responsible manner”, and had provided “timely updates” to the World Health Organization, releasing the genome sequencing of the virus at the earliest opportunity and sharing its experience with the rest of the world without any hesitation.
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
