SHANGHAI, March 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- James
Liang is an economist and entrepreneur. Trip.com
Group Ltd. is one of the world's largest OTAs. The following are
his thoughts on current events. These opinions are his own, and do
not necessarily reflect those of Trip.com Group Ltd. as a
whole:
The international outbreak of COVID-19 has been met with
encouraging mutual support from many countries, but unfortunately,
xenophobia and anti-global tendencies have also become more
apparent than ever.
Following the initial outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, countries began to close their borders,
and in some places, people of Asian appearance were blamed for
allegedly spreading the 'Chinese virus'. Conversely, during the
initial stages of the outbreak in China, one popular theory postulated that the
disease was in fact a genetic weapon designed to target Chinese,
and Asians more widely.
A month later, as the outbreak continues to spread across
Europe and the US, such baseless
speculations should cease gaining traction. Similarly, it should be
clear by now that the virus does not belong to one country, and
that racial profiling should stop, in the same way that over one
month ago, residents of Hubei
should not have been ostracized in China.
In this crisis, humanity shares a single fate, and to achieve
victory, the world must come together to affirm global
co-operation, and prevent an 'outbreak' of blind xenophobia.
At a time when the world depends on their leadership to affirm
solidarity, it is regrettable that some world leaders such as US
President Donald Trump have only
further stirred negative sentiment, joining fearmongers in making
incendiary comments like dubbing the COVID-19 novel coronavirus
'the Chinese virus' on Twitter. By the same logic, the 2009
outbreak of H1N1 in North America
could've been called the 'American flu' — but nobody stooped so low
as to stigmatize it.
Of course, viruses know no borders, race, or ideology. The World
Health Organization (WHO) explicitly named the virus in a neutral
manner precisely to avoid discriminatory association with regions,
races or classes. The world must be vigilant not to let xenophobia
manifest at times like this, when countries should come together to
secure a victory for humanity.
Sharing of information
Despite the various stigmas and allegations that have inevitably
arisen, and although the health authorities in Wuhan and Hubei
Province made various errors of judgment during the initial
stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, following the intervention of the
central government, China worked
to provide information to WHO and the international community as
quickly as possible. When the virus was confirmed to be a novel
strand of coronavirus, the country ensured that the complete gene
sequence, primers and probes were made available internationally.
As the containment effort progressed, China shared findings related to epidemic
prevention control measures and treatment methods, and held dozens
of remote sessions with organizations like WHO, ASEAN, the European
Union, and countries including Japan, Korea, Russia, Germany, France and the US. This information would
prove to be invaluable to other countries later in the global fight
against the pandemic.
Just as some of the world was occupied with heaping the blame on
China, commentators in the country
were quick to entertain all sorts of international conspiracies. On
29 January, the internationally renowned New England Journal of
Medicine published a paper on the initial outbreak in
Wuhan, which found that the virus
may have been transmitted between humans as early as mid-December 2019, and that as early as
11 January 2020, there were already
200 confirmed cases in Wuhan. This
article, co-written by researchers from various institutions
including the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,
the Hubei Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the
University of Hong Kong, conducted
retrospective analysis on the early stages of the epidemic on the
basis of data that was only made available later. Some online
commentators questioned whether the authors had intentionally
concealed this data in order to secure a publication. But such
postulations couldn't be further from the truth. As epidemiologists
argue, availability of information is critical to the effective
containment of an outbreak. The publication of this article in an
international forum in late January, written on the basis of data
that was available at the time, had nothing to do with the fact
that the epidemic did not receive the attention that it should have
in China in December 2019. In reality, the timely publication
of these papers was conducive to ensuring that the outbreak
received due attention in the international community, and that
effective measures were able to be formulated.
Recently, following effective containment of the epidemic in
China, the country shared its
findings with the world so that other countries would benefit,
and a global victory could be secured. For example, shortly after
WHO designated the outbreak as a pandemic, a forum that brought
together 60 countries and WHO was held in Beijing, at which Chinese experts shared their
findings in the earlier stages of epidemic control. Having
effectively contained the outbreak at home, China has demonstrated a strong willingness to
contribute to securing a global victory in the fight against the
COVID-19 outbreak, in the same way that others came to its
assistance in its moment of need.
Developing a cure
Experts argue that medicines and vaccines for the virus are the
greatest hopes for humanity to achieve a victory in the fight
against COVID-19, and there have been a number of international
developments in this regard.
The most prominent development thus far is Radixivir, a drug
developed by US biotechnology company Gilead Sciences, which has
produced encouraging preliminary results in a
14-patient clinical trial held in Japan, in which most patients recovered.
Although randomized double-blind controlled trials are needed for
conclusive results, due to the urgent need for treatment, Gilead is
expected to produce sufficient supply to support treatment
worldwide in the near future.
On 16 March, a China-developed
COVID-19 vaccine proceeded to the trial stage for the first time.
On the same day, the US National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases announced that a US-developed vaccine for
COVID-19 had also entered the first stage of clinical trials, and
that volunteers had already begun to receive experimental
injections. Germany, the UK,
France, Japan, Israel
and other countries have also been working as part of an
international effort to develop a vaccine for the virus.
The timely development of a safe and effective vaccine is of top
priority for prevention of widespread COVID-19 infection. Only
through working together can countries have confidence in these new
medical developments and beat the virus.
Providing support
In the early days of the outbreak in China, masks were a scarce commodity. In
response, Japan, South Korea and others, sent medical masks and
protective clothing to the country. Packages from Japan with words of encouragement drawn from
Chinese poetry were well-received online, and became a symbol of
mutual support between countries in the fight against the
epidemic.
By March, however, when the number of new cases across many
Chinese provinces had reached nil, the number of diagnoses outside
China had quickly grown to exceed
the total number of cases within China, and various countries began to
experience similar shortages of medical supplies. In response,
China transitioned from the role
of beneficiary to benefactor. In addition to government support,
international enterprises based in the country made significant
contributions. Trip.com Group donated 1 million masks to various
countries including Japan,
South Korea and Italy, and the Alibaba Foundation donated
masks, protective clothing and test kits to 54 countries in
Africa. These donations were
significant not only in terms of their material value, but as
symbols of the determination and willingness of international
enterprises and society to support other countries in overcoming
this common challenge.
In addition to medical essentials, China also reciprocated the support it
received earlier from other nations by sending teams of medical
experts to countries and regions severely affected by the outbreak
to assist with prevention and control. On 12 March, medical experts
from the National Health Commission and the Chinese Red Cross
arrived in Rome with 31 tons of
medical supplies to support Italy
in the fight against the epidemic, after having already sent
support teams to Iran and
Iraq.
Experts will agree that with the support of other countries,
China achieved encouraging results
in containing the outbreak. Now, the country has much to share in
terms of both resources and findings, and has expressed a
willingness to contribute to a global solution to the outbreak.
Improving screening and quarantine
In the early stages of the epidemic, many countries implemented
entry restrictions for Chinese nationals. As the situation begins
to improve in China and worsen in
other parts of the world, the country has introduced stricter
quarantine policies for travelers arriving from abroad, to prevent
a second outbreak in the country. On 16 March, for example,
Beijing city implemented a policy
requiring all international arrivals, regardless of origin and
nationality, to quarantine at designated locations at their own
expense for 14 days. Shanghai also
announced regulations requiring all international arrivals with
recent travel history in heavily affected countries and regions,
which are updated according to the latest available information, to
quarantine for 14 days.
Economists have argued that the measures taken in Shanghai are more precise and conducive to
allowing life to return to normal, and ultimately, containing the
outbreak without causing unnecessary damage to the economy.
Countries must work together, not alone, to prevent a second
outbreak. Concerns to do with false reporting could be addressed by
working with international telecommunications companies to verify
the travel history of travelers, developing an international system
on the basis of the 'health code' currently in use in China. More precise identification of at-risk
travelers would also allow restrictions to be opened up for
countries and regions with comparatively better epidemic control
(for example, Japan, Singapore, Hong
Kong, Macao and
Taiwan). This would serve to
reduce obstacles to daily life, business and exchanges, as well as
concentrating the use of relatively limited resources on the
isolation of areas with material risk.
Conclusion
Once seamless and frequent exchanges have been disrupted by the
pandemic, and the impacts of these disruptions may very well be as
significant as the epidemic itself. This experience is also a
wake-up call. Having unprecedented restrictions placed on
communications and exchanges has forced many of us to search for
alternatives where we might not have otherwise.
The barriers to exchange that have been imposed upon us in this
desperate time should also serve as a sobering reminder that there
remain various self-imposed, and unnecessary barriers to productive
exchange between countries, which we should alleviate. As
economists have argued for some time, breaking down the various
barriers to trade between the US and China, and ensuring that key channels for
information sharing and communications such as the Internet remain
open are imperative to ensuring the future of the world
economy.
Unfortunately, in the same way that entry-exit restrictions made
travel virtually impossible, experts have argued that the so-called
'Great Firewall of China' has
continued to serve as a significant hurdle to important
international exchanges. With unprecedented restrictions on
movement and contact worldwide, and scores of people taking
temporary refuge in their home countries, alternative digital
avenues for cross-border communications have a determining role to
play in allowing economic activity to continue, and it is critical
that these are not hindered by unnecessary restrictions. Students
shouldn't have to worry about being unable to access their
university's official website due to the Internet
restrictions of the 'Great Firewall', for example.
Under the impetus of the present epidemic, a failure to address
these evident pitfalls runs the risk of sending globalization
backwards.
During times like these, the importance of international
co-operation becomes apparent. When China faced the initial outbreak, many
countries extended a helping hand, and now that the epidemic has
been brought under control, China
has reciprocated by offering its findings and resources to help
other countries overcome this common challenge. Our actions in this
epidemic determine not the fate of a single country, ethnicity, or
ideology, but of the human race.
Viruses are the common enemy of humanity. The present epidemic
has given us a chance to reflect deeply on the true meaning of a
common destiny for all of humanity, and brought the pitfalls of
present to our immediate attention. Countries will need to work
together closely to respond to the challenges that we collectively
face, and to break down the barriers to exchange that still exist.
Only then can we truly secure a victory for humanity.
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SOURCE Trip.com Group