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Cary Huang
SCMP Columnist
Sino File
by Cary Huang
Sino File
by Cary Huang

Coronavirus: China can’t suppress it, US military can’t kill it. Covid-19 is the real Godzilla

  • The truth to emerge from the pandemic is that all humans share a common destiny, and we are embroiled in our biggest battle since World War II
  • Only when the human race chooses to share, help, care, cooperate and support each other can we beat this enemy from nature
The central truth to emerge from the Covid-19 outbreak is that all human beings share a common destiny, as it is the first time the whole world has been ravaged by a single catastrophe since World War II.

Never before has a pandemic or natural disaster had such a wide and deep impact on human life. Normal activity in the vast majority of nations has come to a halt, with massive school shutdowns, major events suspended or cancelled, most airlines grounded, many metro systems closed, cities locked down and national borders closed – not to mention the human casualties.

Covid-19 constitutes a potentially bigger external threat to mankind’s survival than any foe from within the species itself since the defeat of the Axis powers in 1945.

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The outbreak also speaks volumes about the fact that humans are as vulnerable as any living creature on earth to Mother Nature’s wrath. Such vulnerability might be partly due to our innocence and ignorance and partly due to our complacency, thanks to the luxury afforded us by peace, affluence, cosiness of life, and the arrival of high technology.

For these reasons, we were apparently ill-prepared to deal with the catastrophe. World leaders did not seem to anticipate the severity of the nascent pandemic, allowing it to spread around the world freely before action was taken to confine it. Covid-19 is the real Godzilla, wreaking havoc from one country to another, ignoring race, ethnicity, religion, ideology and political beliefs under sovereign state powers.

The world’s most repressive states cannot suppress it, nor can the world’s most powerful military kill it. Mighty nations might use their political and military prowess to solve any geopolitical challenge, but not this pandemic. The United States Armed Forces has won numerous wars, but its formidable firepower has failed in the face of the virus.

The fast-spreading infection is a wake-up call for the international community to act swiftly and in concert to build a safer, globalised world. The only way to win the war is to unify, fully mobilise and make effective use of all the world’s available resources, removing as many of the barriers set up by national borders and sovereign powers as possible.

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The outbreak underlines the importance of strengthening global leadership and cooperation to bridge resource shortfalls between countries. Even developed economies like Italy have faced a severe shortfall in medical personnel and materials as the outbreak intensified. Winning the war against Covid-19 will require a fundamental restructuring of global public health management and global governance systems.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) should go ahead with a wholesale restructuring to strengthen its role as the world’s leading authority on public health. The organisation should have real executive power and more resources to work out global contingency plans, maintain storage of emergency materials and be an effective platform for global communication, cooperation and command.
As political relations between countries have dictated the extent of their cooperation in this matter, as seen in the bitter quarrel between the United States and China, the WHO should play a role in pooling global medical resources for drug and vaccine research, which are critical for the fight against the pandemic.

The WHO should also have the real power to monitor, supervise and discipline sovereign nations if they fail in their duties or violate International Health Regulations.

The outbreak also suggests an urgent need to strengthen the WHO’s capacity to support countries in preventing and mitigating the impact of outbreaks and other health crises.

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The world sorely needs more capital investment in public health goods and services, such as more funds to finance the WHO’s “Triple Billion Target” programme – 1 billion more people benefiting from universal health coverage; 1 billion more people better protected from health emergencies; and 1 billion more people enjoying better health and well-being.

Pandemic prevention and containment is a global public good. Providing it requires increased financial input from nations. Beijing has championed the reform of global governance in recent years, and the outbreak offers an impetus and opportunity to push forward such ideas. It has become imperative for nations to establish a joint mechanism for dealing with major public health emergencies.

Indian devotees at Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, India, wear face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak. Photo: EPA

For instance, a global programme to draw together multiple institutions of global governance as well as scientific and medical research organs worldwide should be established. The WHO should also be granted more power to act to isolate systemic risks early on and prevent a localised public health scare turning into a worldwide pandemic.

Efforts should be made to strengthen the enforcement of global health regulations as they lack an effective enforcement mechanism to ensure the compliance of all parties. It should be noted that weak rule of law and lack of good governance are still common in many developing and undemocratic nations.

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Nations should reorient their politics and prepare to compromise some of their sovereign powers, to build a unified and stronger global mechanism to fight enemies from nature. The WHO should have the power to conduct a thorough and independent investigation and scientific study on the whole process of the Covid-19 outbreak, which has become a fresh point of friction between the US and China. A scientific, non-politicised study is of critical importance to find out what lessons must be learned.

The hope is that Covid-19 will sweep away many political barriers between nations to promote the global fight against the spread of disease. The human race can only win this war against its most formidable enemy when politicians emphasise science and truth before their zealotry over power or their bigotry on ideology. The Covid-19 shock might serve to stabilise or destabilise relations between rival powers, like those between the US-led liberal democracies and the semi-alliance between China and Russia. The outbreak also gives them – and the US and China in particular – the opportunity to cooperate and to lead. On top of this, the pandemic speaks volumes about the truth that only when the human race chooses to share, help, care, cooperate and support each other can we win this war.

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Throughout history, catastrophes and crises have often prompted swift reforms – and such reforms have also often brought about significant human progress. The hope is that the outbreak of Covid-19 will spur a new wave of international empathy, solidarity and cooperation of the sort that emerged in the war against Nazism between 1939 and 1945.

Cary Huang is a veteran China affairs columnist, having written on the topic since the early 1990s

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