U.S.-China Relations and COVID-19: What Can Be Done Now
作者：John Holden’ 来源：CSIS
The United States and China have dealt with a number of crises over the past decades: the deadly suppression of the Tiananmen protests in 1989; the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999; the EP-3 incident over Hainan in 2001; and the Great Recession of 2008. In each case, leaders of the two nations were able to shelve domestic political exigencies to find common ground upon which to base their nations’ futures.
I vividly
recall a luncheon in Beijing in the summer of 1999 when a delegation I led as
president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations was told by a
confidante of Chinese president Jiang Zemin that the Standing Committee of the
Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party had just made a decision to “move beyond”
the bombing of their embassy in Belgrade and resuscitate U.S.-China relations.
But today we
seem to have entered unchartered waters, as the COVID-19 pandemic both
highlights the need for Sino-American cooperation and, at the same time,
reveals the two countries’ inability to do so.
What is at
stake today are not only the lives and livelihoods of Americans but those of
people around the world who will benefit or suffer depending on how well
Americans and Chinese can bring their collective talent and energy together to
find remedies, vaccines, and protocols to address COVID-19.
In recent
days, we have witnessed extraordinarily unfortunate comments by representatives
of both the Chinese and American governments. There are many reasons for this,
among which is the relentless deterioration of Sino-American relations in the
past several years, but one of the most important reasons is surely the anxiety
that has gripped people around the world faced with the unprecedented wildfire
spread of a disease that threatens lives and economic well-being. Ordinary
people are on edge, and so are political leaders, their legitimacy threatened
by public scrutiny of their management of a crisis none of them were prepared
for.
For a superb
analysis of the ramifications of the thin-skinned tit for tat between the
Chinese and American governments, I recommend this piece by the journalist John Pomfret,
whom I have known since I helped him learn Chinese at Stanford in the
late-1970s.
In the short
term, I am pessimistic about U.S.-China relations because I think that the
leaders of both countries calculate that the benefits of blaming the other play
so much to their own political advantage that they may be willing to sacrifice
even potentially greater advantages that would accrue to their countries as a
whole from cooperation.
That does
not mean, however, that improvements in Sino-American relations have no upside,
nor does it mean that nothing positive can be done. To the contrary, now is the
time when private and subnational actors must step up to seize opportunities
for cooperation to defeat COVID-19, save lives, and limit economic hardship.
Once through to the other side of this crisis, we may be in a better position
to improve how the two countries deal with one another.
Thankfully,
scientists are working together around the world to find antiviral treatments
for COVID-19 and vaccines to prevent it, supported by international bodies,
national governments, corporations, and not-for-profit institutions. But more
can be done. Given its recent rapid escalation of production of personal
protective equipment (P.P.E.), respirators, ventilators, and other equipment,
China is in a position to supply a great deal of the material that the United
States urgently needs. President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act
with an executive order to ensure that “all health and medical resources needed
to respond to the spread of COVID-19 are properly distributed to the Nation’s
healthcare system,” something that will undoubtedly take time to implement.
Rather than wait for this government initiative to bear fruit, it would be wise
for business leaders to instead now be challenging their supply chain managers,
industry associations, and humanitarian NGOs to seek out Chinese providers of
critical equipment and supplies and to connect them with the state and local
governments and hospitals that need them to make sure that Americans—and people
of other nations—benefit from China’s enormous production capabilities.
It is time
for men and women of good will and practical abilities around the world to set
aside politics and join forces to fight COVID-19. If national governments are
unable to find ways to cooperate, there is no reason others cannot. Too much is
at stake not to.
John L. Holden is a senior associate (non-resident) in the Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and senior director and head of the China practice for McLarty Associates.
来源时间：2020/4/21 发布时间：2020/3/20
旧文章ID：21417
