Zhao Yanjing is a Professor in the Economics Department of Fudan University in Shanghai and also a leading Chinese city planning expert.  He published an article on the Ai Sixiang website on 31st March 2020 in which he recommends that the Chinese government should prioritise non-governmental channels to provide targeted assistance to the United States during the Coronavirus outbreak there.

Zhao describes the pandemic as the first major disaster that has affected the entire world.   I assume he is referring here to ‘natural disasters’ and not world wars, but given the seriousness of the current pandemic I do not think we need to quibble over his characterisation.  He also says that every country in the world is focussing on how China and the United States respond.  He notes that the rapid increase in tension between the two has hindered the ability of the world’s ‘two large principal countries’ to cooperate in responding to this global calamity.

Zhao is very much in favour of China providing aid to the United States as it battles the virus.  However, he argues that the Chinese government should not lead this effort as it has done when providing aid in the past.  He believes that if the Chinese government took the lead, it would enable American politicians to advance a populist agenda and achieve the ‘decoupling’ of China.  Instead, China should direct its aid efforts through non-governmental channels and the aid should be targeted to American organisations and the American people generally rather than through the US federal government.  He considers that such an approach would be more likely to attract understanding and support from the American public.

Zhao raises the example of the Alibaba Group’s founder Jack Ma arranging a gift of one million face masks and 500,000 test gifts to the United States in mid-March.  He quotes a tweet that Ma posted at the time: “We and the American people join hands in getting through this difficult time.”

As for the actual ‘channels’ that could be used to provide aid, Zhao refers to three possibilities:

• Twin City and Province/State relationships – Zhao suggests Chinese cities could provide aid directly to their twinned cities in the United States, for example Beijing to New York, Shanghai to San Francisco and Liaoning Province to the state of Utah.  He says targeted aid of this kind should however be avoided in cases where elected politicians in a particular city or state have repeatedly expressed anti-Chinese views, e.g., Senator Marco Rubio’s state of Florida.
• Companies and organisations in similar fields, particularly where there is a historical relationship and the Chinese side can link its aid with the prior receipt of aid from the US side – Zhao raises the example of the Xiangya School of Medicine at Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, a School that was founded with assistance from Yale University.
• Mutual assistance between experts – Zhao mentions an online meeting held on 13th March in which three leading Chinese doctors Peng Zhiyong, Cao Bin and Zhang Wenhong shared their experience in fighting the virus with 300 American scientists, doctors and public health leaders.
• People to people links – Zhao stresses the important role that overseas Chinese communities could play.  He mentions overseas Chinese in Japan who have distributed face masks on streets there out of appreciation for the expression of support by Japanese people for the Chinese in fighting the virus.  He suggests that Chinese Provinces from which large numbers of people have migrated in the past to the United States, for example Fujian Province, could combine assistance to overseas Chinese in the United States with assistance to the American communities in which they live.
• Non-state media – Zhao considers that non-Chinese government controlled media organisations could play a role in making China’s assistance known to people in the United States.  He mentions Tik Tok, Twitter and You Tube in particular.

Zhao ends his article by saying that whether or not a nation can ‘peacefully rise’ in the world does not entirely depend entirely on its own wishes.  It also depends on ‘historical chance’.  He says that for the past few hundred years China has always been a country that has ‘received’ aid.  Despite the remarkable growth of its economy over the period since the ‘opening and reform’ era began in 1978, there has been no fundamental change in the way it is perceived by western countries.  The sudden arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic has for the first time given China the opportunity to lend a helping hand to the other major powers in the world, and at the same time to remould its global position.  China’s ability to help other countries at a time when it is still in serious difficulties itself is a clear demonstration of its true strength.

Comment:  Three things struck me about Zhao’s article.  First, it is remarkable that we are now in the midst of a crisis in which the United States itself needs to secure help from other countries.  No-one can be surprised that European countries like Italy, Spain, France and the UK are looking for help, but this must be the first time in a century that the United States has needed to secure help on this scale from other countries.  Secondly, Zhao’s recommendation that aid should be directed through non-governmental channels is in line with what we are reading in news reports about the provision of masks, other protective equipment and ventilators from China to other countries.  There was a report in the press today that there are many discussions going on between doctors and medical experts in China and the United States.  Thirdly, I was struck by the realpolitik tone of Zhao’s closing remarks.  I think it is too early to predict the long-term geopolitical consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is clear there will be some consequences.  Finally, I was rather surprised that there is no reference in Zhao’s article to the possibility of a more coordinated international approach to tackling the pandemic.  It seems every country is going its own way in protecting its own citizens, with increasing competition for essential medical and protective equipment, with the WHO having little influence over developments.      

Link to the original article: http://www.aisixiang.com/data/120672.html

Title of the original article: 非官方渠道主导，对美精准援助

Michael Ingle: michaelingle01@gmail.com

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: 赵燕菁，非官方渠道主导对美援助，新冠肺炎，Covid-19