The COVID-19 turning the world upside down this time seems to have entered a stalemate. In addition to causing great harm to the world, COVID-19 is more like a “disinformation party.” Various conspiracy theories about the epidemic can be seen everywhere, and the accusations caused by the conspiracy theories are heated. Numerous fake news about the epidemic made people to prepare for the epidemic, but they were misled by false information and missed their chances. ASEAN is also facing a dilemma that is difficult to distinguish between true and false.
China’s epidemic prevention and control has achieved significant results and has begun to resume work and production. Most cities have restored social order. Many ASEAN countries have also achieved considerable results in learning from the Chinese model. The Chinese government has also taken the initiative to provide its assistance to Malaysia. After learning about Malaysia’s needs through official and private channels, China provided medical supplies and dispatched a medical assistance team. This gave the Malaysian people hope to overcome the epidemic.
In contrast to the United States, the development of the epidemic has not only failed American people, but also made them worry about falling into a more out of control state. For the United States, accusing China has become Trump government’s “dumping” method for its ineffective fight against the epidemic.
Due to the expansion of the epidemic in the United States and the increasing number of deaths, Trump is facing increasingly severe criticism and accountability pressures from the Democratic Party and public opinion. According to polls, the presidential election for him has been in risk now.
In order to get rid of this situation, Trump will continue to choose to blame the increasingly severe epidemic against China, and will deliberately make Sino-US relations worser as his election strategy. Therefore, the United States, as the global leader, its electoral politics is likely to distort the direction of the global public in fighting the epidemic.
The frequent accusations of the origin of the COVID-19 to China by American politicians will also put China at a disadvantage, including triggering more countries to follow the United States to claim compensation from China. However, in terms of strict international legal principles, once a claim enters the proceedings, it will encounter great legal obstacles. The moral support of the U.S. and the western countries to pursue liability claims is not enough, and it is easy to make people think that they are jointly against China. If it were not for the judge to sentence China to lose the case for “political correctness”, the law would find it difficult to support such claims.
Once China loses the lawsuit, on the one hand, the claimant country may not be able to obtain compensation smoothly; on the other hand, the claim will undermine the principle of “sovereign state immunity”, which will cause countries to tamper with the construction of international norms for their own interests. This will undoubtedly accelerate the chaos of world “Jungle” and greatly increase the probability of wars among the countries.
In the early stage of the epidemic, due to its ferocity, there may be flaws in preventing the spread. However, it may be useful to review the practice of the international community when it criticized China for responding to the SARS epidemic. The Vice Premier then Wu Yi attended the World Health Assembly in person. In her speech, she did not evade China’s responsibilities, but bowed and apologized to the representatives of various countries, which won applause from the participants. Ms. Wu Yi’s dare to face the demeanor is indeed worthy of reference for China’s current international relations.
For China, some countries may have made some unproven assumptions that have become reality. However, we must believe that most countries, including many western countries, are sensible, and the entire ASEAN knows the result of choosing sides to harm China.
After all, the COVID-19 is a new type of virus, so it is difficult to identify at first, and it is understandable that there were some response errors caused by this. Although China’s “persuasion and explanation” is hard to take, it should still be done with full sincerity to gain the understanding of most countries.
Given the severity of the pandemic and the lack of effective medications, as some top medical experts have warned, perhaps it will make a comeback this winter, and it may last two to three years. If so, it will be a heavy blow to mankind, especially to countries with poor and inadequate medical resources, and ASEAN, which is at the global economic hotspot, cannot be left alone.
Therefore, whether the virus originated in China or not, it is a fact that the epidemic first occurred in China, and China should accept the international community’s traceability investigation of COVID-19. However, this survey must take into account China’s feelings and must involve Chinese medical experts.
In fact, two WHO experts investigating the origin of the virus arrived in China ten days ago. The WHO Executive Director of Health Emergencies Mike Ryan said that the two experts were currently in quarantine locally and would begin to work with many Chinese scientists after the quarantine ends, and conduct scientific cooperation and exchanges with Chinese counterparts on virus traceability.
Now that the epidemic has become a global pandemic and has become a global issue of human well-being, ASEAN countries should work together to control the spread of the epidemic while the epidemic is still uncontrolled, rather than fighting separately.
At present, the restoration of production, life and normal social order in ASEAN countries has become a top priority. There are lanes for cars and roads for horses. ASEAN countries should avoid making the epidemic a tool of political game, especially avoiding the South China Sea and other issues, to get ASEAN out of the shadow of COVID-19 as soon as possible.
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