Three women wearing face masks shop in a supermarket in San Francisco, the US on March 9. Photo: CNS photo
By Chen Qingqing and Wang Cong
It is time for China to consider the requests for help by US states like California and New York in fighting against the deadly coronavirus based on a humanitarian spirit as the infection numbers in the US surged to nearly 20,000 Saturday.
Despite Washington’s escalating xenophobic slur and hostility toward Beijing by repeatedly calling the novel coronavirus “Chinese virus”, states like California and New York, which have had long-term subnational international cooperation with China, are mulling on seeking support from China as some local medics are eager to learn more about China’s clinical experiences in treating critically ill patients and implementing effective quarantine measures.
More importantly, they need to import medical equipment from China, as in the wake of the pandemic China has emerged as a major donor of supplies to virus-stricken countries and regions across the globe.
New York and California are homes to most Asian-American communities in the US, which have also maintained robust subnational ties with Chinese provinces and cities even amid the yearlong trade war. Some Californian companies have also actively taken part in China’s annual import exposition despite headwinds in bilateral ties between the two countries.
A California-based medical expert, who preferred not to be identified, told the Global Times on Friday some local medics are eager to know if China has plans to donate medical supplies to local hospitals, as it did to Italy, as more medical staff in the US state stand exposed to the deadly disease, in addition to inadequate supplies of protective masks, ventilators, and intensive care beds.
Shmuel Shoham, a transplant infectious diseases physician at Johns Hopkins, shared a Tweet on Friday saying, “right now over 80 doctors at Hopkins and at hospitals in China just finished a meeting via videoconferencing. The doctors in China taught us from their recent experience.”
An increasing number of people in the US are also calling on local governments to seek cooperation with China to beat back the virus, as the US federal government has been failing to help.
“If the federal government and their clown for a president won’t help states like California, they should go to China for help,” one social media user tweeted Friday.
China can help the worst-affected US states like California, New York, and Florida, which have relatively fewer cases but a huge elderly population, by sending ventilators, according to several observers in the US.
“If China wants to look very good right now to America, it will be about ventilators,” one observer based in California told the Global Times on Saturday, adding that most states will manage other supplies such as masks. “I think [New York and Florida] would accept China’s aid.”
New York, one of the most virus-stricken areas in the US where the number of infection jumped to over 7,800, was entered into a disaster-like status. Local media New York Post said in an article on Friday that coronavirus killed city residents “at a rate of more than one per hour.” Facing this unprecedented crisis, the city’s medical system is also nearing a crisis point due to critical shortage of lifesaving ventilators machines, and more medical workers are overwhelmed as there have been inadequate supplies for doctors.
When US President Donald Trump kept playing down the impact of the coronavirus, shifting the blame to China, which, some observers said, aimed to hide the administration inadequate preparedness to this crisis, some doctors and medics in the different US states such as New York, California and Maryland have started to seek help from China, particularly from Chinese medics who have had experiences of fighting this battle at the frontline.
Shortage of supplies and medical equipment, growing risks among medical staff getting infected, and overwhelming of hospitals were part of scenarios at the early stages of the outbreak in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei Province, where the first novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) was reported in January in the country.
While some US media said the coronavirus competition including the containment efforts is wrecking the US-China cooperation, subnational cooperation is now heating up, especially when federal government has not shown more intention of helping fixing the shortages of potentially life-saving supplies for the states.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently said “we literally have people in China shopping for ventilators which is one of the largest manufacturers,” while Trump asked governors that they should be buying medical supplies for their states and that the federal government is not a “shipping clerk.”
In contrary to the White House’s passive pandemic response, states like New York, California and Illinois increased restrictions, reflecting a more aggressive way of curbing the virus spread.
“The virus is common enemy for humankind, it’s reasonable to undergo international cooperation,” Diao Daming, an associate professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Saturday.
Some Chinese hospitals have begun offering clinical and treatment experiences to some US doctors and medical experts. For instance, the First Hospital of Zhejiang Province had videoconference call with some experts with Yale University on Wednesday.
Chinese experts answered questions including “what the core experiences are in dealing with the virus?” “what the experiences are in treating patients who are critically ill?” “what the standards for ICU treatment are?” “how to protect medics from infections?” and so on, according to media reports.
However, the US federal government continue smearing China by ignoring fundamentals of the science by naming COVID-19 as “Chinese virus”, sparking outrage among not only Chinese but also Asian Americans in the US, such offensive tactic lowered chance for Beijing and Washington to work together at national level, particularly some “racist and xenophobia-driven attacks” on China have become unacceptable, inflaming the spat of words between two countries, according to observers.
After Trump constantly called COVID-19 “Chinese virus,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called it in such offensive way on Friday, criticizing that the Chinese government tried to suppress this information instead of trying to actually do the work to suppress the virus. Pompeo’s absurd words were refuted by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang on Friday.
“The US side could abandon the ‘political virus’ originating in its ideological bias,” Geng said.
It would be more valuable for China to work with the US at subnational level, or local-to-local, which could be also be meaningful, Li Haidong, a professor of US studies at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Saturday.
“The White House has been constantly trying to shift the blame to us, toward which Beijing needs to have a clear mind. To work with Washington, it could end up being attacked and insulted after Beijing offers intensive help,” he said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted lately “China fought hard and bought 2 months for the world. Regrettably, US government squandered such precious time, then spared no efforts stigmatizing China.”
This is immoral and unjust, he said, noting that it does no good to US’ own control of the virus nor international cooperation.
China and the US have tradition in subnational cooperation, providing room and opportunities for further cooperation in pandemic prevention and control work, Diao noted.
