Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post article on December 14, original title: Why Trump is wasting time and energy to blame China for the coronavirus epidemic.
The author often fell asleep on the TV, but was awakened by CNN’s “breaking news” report in the early morning a few days ago. News says ‘secret documents show China’s early mishandling of the pandemic – and now nearly a year after the first coronavirus was discovered.
Enough. Trump has been trying to blame China for the epidemic and the ensuing chaos. Keep walking on this road. At best, it’s a waste of time. At worst, this is a deliberate distraction that prevents us from dealing with the fundamental problems related to the epidemic and starting a serious global economic recovery. It is advisable to further explore why it is meaningless to blame China. Because the truth is that this epidemic crisis is not China’s fault.
After the outbreak of the epidemic, China acted quickly to identify and share relevant information. On the other hand, research in the medical journal has shown that there may have been a case of COVID-19 in the United States as early as December 2019. Does this mean that people should now blame the United States for not taking the epidemic more seriously? We can do this, but what’s the point?
Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in cities, and about 1.5 billion people traveled internationally last year. When people found an atypical virus, it had already spread. In this case, we should not blame, but focus on the main issue – response to the epidemic. First of all, it is necessary to ensure that poor countries with weak health infrastructure receive the support they need.
After that, countries with stronger capabilities need to be vigilant and coordinate the implementation of prevention as soon as possible. The reason the pandemic got out of control is that the world has not mobilized to do both. And Trump has been trying to isolate China, rather than contact and cooperate with China.
In the United States, there has been a significant increase in infections and deaths in poor communities.
As stated by WHO, the poor are unable to buy nutritious food and are more vulnerable to infectious diseases. Data from the health department in my hometown of Los Angeles also prove this. As the global economy continues to decline and more people become poor, infection and mortality rates will continue to rise.
Therefore, it is obvious that we should avoid accusing China with all kinds of false words. That’s not likely to allow China to cooperate, but it is more likely to make China defensive. Most importantly, China is not a problem, but a key part of the solution.
China needs to be involved and by no means isolated. Only by working together can the world meet this challenge. Only by working together can we solve the problem completely. To do this, first (the West) must stop blaming China for the epidemic.
