China, America and the Coronavirus Blame Game
Graphic by Sabrina Kearney/The Exonian
By Angela Zhang
China’s authoritarian government has sparked a great deal of controversy amidst the coronavirus pandemic—China has been both lauded for its quick response and criticized for its authoritarian tactics. In the meantime, the U.S. has also come under fire for not reacting quickly enough. Can we use this crisis to draw any sort of conclusions about their two forms of government?
Many China critics have severely criticized Beijing’s lack of transparency in reporting fatalities and sharing accurate statistics with the world. There’s something unique about this obfuscation—though other countries may also be underreporting because of a lack of testing and undetected deaths, China is specifically trying to use its inaccurate statistics to claim it has successfully contained the virus. Obviously, when compared to the more accurate case counts in countries like Italy and the U.S., China would seem to have brought the pandemic under control in its very epicenter.
But China’s authoritarian system of leadership is known for hiding uncomfortable truths. The most up-to-date numbers are definitely much lower than the real numbers, especially because of China’s large population and the many undetected, at-home deaths.
Also, Beijing initially attempted to conceal the outbreak by fooling the World Health Organization and, when it discovered the virus was spread person-to-person, keeping this fact to itself. These steps proved to be detrimental and clearly exacerbated the situation we are in right now. No one threatened or forced China to conceal details of the outbreak, yet it coerced its own medical professionals into stay quiet. Imagine how many lives could have been saved had we known the details of this virus earlier.
Many countries, however, are reluctant to voice more criticisms of China, which so happens to be the largest manufacturer of highly-demanded medical supplies and a dominant trading partner with several countries. The world needs China right now, so many are moving on from the failures of the Chinese Communist Party.
Still, China may very well be attempting to alter its perceived role in this pandemic by playing the hero. According to China, it has successfully contained the pandemic and is now “gifting” other countries with medical necessities (Italy claims the gifts are actually exports, and other countries claim many kits were faulty).
China claims that all of these accusations are simply “immoral slanders.” While I don’t think the accusations directed towards China are entirely false, I do think that they are being used to give the U.S. a convenient excuse to shift blame and point fingers, when we also failed to respond efficiently.
Trump initially applauded China for taking responsibility and working hard to remain “transparent,” but now that Trump is being criticized for his decisions, he seems to have revoked those praises to flip negative attention onto China.
Yes, China did conceal information about the virus at first, but it was able to enforce strict lockdowns that were key to slowing the spread of the virus. Especially because there is no vaccine and this is a novel virus, limiting human-to-human contact is vital to buying more time for researchers to study the pandemic as its spread slows. China was able to do so successfully because of its authoritarian government.
Many democratic governments, however, were either skeptical of these lockdowns or enforced only lenient rules, which supports the case that China’s authoritarian government was a major part of efficiently confronting the virus.
Our democracy’s complacency, lack of action, leniency in enforcement and initial attempts to trivialize the urgency of the situation proved to be detrimental and exacerbated the circumstances we are in right now, just as China’s did.
We definitely could have acted quicker. For example, it took New Jersey over two months to mandate stay-at-home orders, and other states enforced their own policies at the governor’s discretion, whereas China was able to mandate controls across the country with ease and speed. Had we taken greater action earlier, our situation could have been controlled by now.
Clearly, both of these governments had their individual faults, as demonstrated by the mass criticism they both face right now. This tête-à-tête, worse still, is straining their relationships with each other and the world. Really, now is not the time to play the finger-pointing game and worsen a relationship that was just starting to heal. Both governments, regardless of their form, need to remain transparent and efficient to gain the trust and ensure the safety of their citizens.
The two global superpowers need to work together to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic. We need cooperation, empathy and compassion, not the blame game.