China’s Anti-Pandemic Efforts Deserve Objective and Fair Judgment

中国人民的抗疫努力应得到客观公正评价

 

Zhang Yiming, Chinese Ambassador to Namibia

驻纳米比亚大使张益明

 

May 14 2020

2020年5月14日

 

The COVID-19 outbreak has dragged the whole human race into an unprecedented and fierce war with a highly infectious disease on a global scale. Led and guided by President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government set up an open and transparent national system for collective outbreak control in the shortest possible time by swiftly taking the most rigorous, comprehensive, and thorough measures. After more than three months of hard work, China has achieved great success in the fight against the coronavirus with the local transmission basically cut off.

抗击新冠肺炎疫情是人类与重大传染性疾病在全球范围内展开的一场史无前例的严峻斗争。在习近平主席亲自指挥部署下，中国人民在最短时间内构建起全民动员、联防联控、公开透明的防控体系，采取了最为严格、全面、彻底的防控措施。经过3个多月艰苦奋战，中国抗疫工作取得巨大成功，本土传播已基本阻断。

 

Despite the defense net that China has built up with determination, unity and sacrifice, this dangerous disease has evolved into a worldwide pandemic. At present, the number of confirmed cases outside China has exceeded 3.6 million. Facing the increasingly severe global anti-pandemic situation, China is making every effort to provide the international community with assistance and share its anti-pandemic experience. However, some politicians in Western countries are not focusing on tackling the coronavirus outbreak, but keen to politicize the pandemic by scapegoating and stigmatizing China. Some of them labeled the virus with China or befouled China to hide the truth, and some are even clamoring for claims and compensation from China. It is clear that they are buck-passing its own failure by blaming others. Referring to the virus as Chinese virus, peddling the theory of Chinese responsibility or clamoring for compensation from China are ridiculous hocus-pocus for all rational persons. Those slanders are merely framing-up and political blackmail and manipulation with legal cover, which are full of de facto mischief, legal ignorance, and political prejudice.

尽管中国用决心、团结、牺牲筑起了有效的疫情防线，但疫情仍在全球范围蔓延，目前中国境外确诊病例数已超过360万例。面对日益严峻的全球抗疫形势，中国正全力向国际社会提供力所能及的帮助，分享抗疫经验，但一些西方国家的政客不干正事，不在防控疫情上花心思，而是热衷于找“替罪羊”，将疫情政治化、对中国污名化，给病毒贴上“中国”标签，为中国贴上“隐瞒”标签，甚至鼓噪向中国“追责”和“索赔”，试图推卸本国抗疫不力的责任，转嫁国内矛盾。将COVID-19冠以“中国病毒”，兜售“中国责任论”，并鼓动对中国进行“索赔”，明眼人都知道，这荒唐至极，不过是栽赃陷害、嫁祸于人的把戏，是披着法律外衣的政治讹诈和政治操纵，充满了事实上的缪差、法律上的无知、政治上的偏见。

 

Ⅰ

There is no scientific evidence to support the so-called virus made in China theory and the hoax of Wuhan Virus Research Institute creating the virus. Those are all ill-intentioned false accusations. In fact, the source of coronavirus is a scientific issue that deserves research and demonstration by scientists and medical experts. The joint statement published in The Lancet by internationally authoritative medical experts pointed out that the COVID-19 had originated from the nature is not man-made. China is just one victim of this disease. On 1 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) held a routine media conference, during which Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of WHO, was questioned whether the new coronavirus came from Wuhan Virus Research Institute. He answered that many scientists had studied the virus gene sequence and been convinced that it is indeed from the nature.

一

所谓新冠病毒是中国制造，甚至臆测是武汉病毒研究所实验室创造，是别有用心人的栽赃，毫无科学依据。关于病毒源头是一个科学问题，应当由科学家和医疗专家进行研究和论证。世界顶级医学杂志《柳叶刀》上刊登权威专家的联合声明，指出新冠病毒来源于大自然，而非人工合成，中国也是病毒的受害者。5月1日，世卫组织召开新冠肺炎例行发布会，针对关于新冠肺炎病毒是否来自武汉病毒研究所的质疑，世卫组织卫生官员迈克尔·瑞安表示，已有许多科学家研究了新冠肺炎病毒基因序列，确信新冠肺炎病毒来自自然界。

 

It is definitely that it is not China that has created the COVID-19. The origin of the virus still needs time to verify. No matter what the truth will be, it is meaningless to blame certain country, since no one wants to see the outbreak. What we need most now is unity, solidarity, and fighting together. Faced with this sudden outbreak with a new virus that humans know almost nothing about, China has paid a huge price and successfully contained the epidemic, and thus won time for the world and contributed to the global fight. By any means, China’s efforts should be fairly evaluated, rather than suffering blame or unreasonable claims. The intention of demanding for China’s reparations is nothing but shifting blame to China for the inadequate response of someone else. Blame game finds little support, and ends up nowhere.

疫情并非由中国造成，病毒起源地现在也并没有定论，这需要时间和科学来最后验证。但无论真相如何，指责哪个国家是疫情源头，毫无意义，因为任何国家都不希望看到疫情暴发，团结一心，共克时艰才是当务之急，而不是相互指责。面对突如其来、人类几乎对其一无所知的全新病毒，中国以举国之力抵挡住疫情第一波凶猛冲击，付出巨大代价和牺牲成功遏制疫情，为全球抗疫赢得了时间，作出了贡献，理应得到公正评价和对待，而不是责难和无理索赔。向中国索赔，无非是想把自身抗疫不力的责任转嫁到中国身上，这种“甩锅”把戏不得人心，也不可能得逞。

 

Ⅱ

The subtext of befouling China to hide the truth is that the Chinese government knew the danger of COVID-19 but took non-transparent way on purpose, which is not the fact. As we know now, coronavirus is a new virus and needs time to find out and scientifically assess its property, transmission mechanism, and perniciousness. At the initial stage of the outbreak, there was no scientific evidence to show its infectivity and fatalness.

二

宣称中国“隐瞒真相”的潜台词是：中国政府早就清楚新冠病毒肺炎的危险性，但却故意对此采取不透明做法。这不符合事实。我们知道，COVID-19是一种新病毒，对其科学认识有一个过程，对其病毒属性、传播原理及危害性的科学评估需要时间。疫情初期，没有科学依据能证明这种新型病毒传染性和危险性到底有多大。

 

On 27 December 2019, China received an unknown case report from Wuhan. China released the first pandemic notice and reported to the WHO Office in China on 31 December. Since 3 January 2020, China has been updating the WHO and relevant countries, including the United States, about COVID-19 on a regular basis. On 12 January, China released the whole genome sequencing of the coronavirus, and on 20 January, China confirmed the human-to-human transmission and shared it with the whole world. On 23 January, at the eve of Spring Festival, the most important traditional festival in China, China put Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic, under quarantine. At that time, there were 571 confirmed cases in China and only 10 cases abroad. On 30 January, WHO announced it as the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), and there were only 82 confirmed cases outside China then. On 23 February, one month after the lockdown of Wuhan, the US reported 35 cases and except for the 76 cases in Italy, most European countries had not found any cases at the moment.

2019年12月27日，中国官方机构收到不明原因肺炎病例报告。12月31日中方发布首份疫情通告并向世卫组织驻华代表处通报武汉出现不明原因肺炎病例。自2020年1月3日起，中方定期向世界卫生组织和包括美国在内的有关国家主动通报有关信息。1月12日，中国向世界公布了新型冠状病毒全基因组序列。1月20日，中国确认该病毒存在人传人现象并向全世界进行了通报。1月23日，中国最重要的传统节日——春节前夕，对疫情中心武汉实施封城，关闭离汉通道，此时中国共有571例确诊，中国境外仅10例确诊。1月30日，世卫组织宣布该疫情构成国际关注的突发公共卫生事件，中国境外仅82例确诊。2月23日武汉封城一个月后，美国通报发现35例确诊病例，除意大利76例外，欧洲大部分国家尚未发现病例。

 

In fact, the Chinese government took decisive steps to stop the spread of the virus immediately after confirming the outbreak of the epidemic, which had won a precious time window of at least one month for the international community to respond to the epidemic. Unfortunately, some countries did not realize the seriousness of the epidemic and failed to take precaution measures in a timely manner. Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of the prestigious medical magazine “The Lancet”, said that “we knew in the last week of January that this was coming. The message from China was absolutely clear, but some countries wasted the whole of February and early March before they acted”. Should these countries humbly reflect on their mistakes. At the end of February, the WHO Director-General warned with a pointed sign that “No country should assume it won’t get cases; that could be a fatal mistake”, while a certain American politician was burbling that “It’s going to disappear. One day – it’s like a miracle – it will disappear”.

事实上，中国政府在疫情暴发后第一时间采取果断举措阻止疫情传播，为国际社会应对疫情赢得了至少1个月的宝贵时间窗口。但遗憾的是，部分国家并未意识到疫情严重性，未能及时采取防控措施。知名医学杂志《柳叶刀》主编霍顿曾表示，在1月的最后一个星期，我们就知道疫情会到来，中国疫情所传递出的信息非常清楚，但一些国家却浪费了大量时间。这些国家是不是应该虚心地反思一下自己有哪些失误？2月底，世卫组织总干事已有所指地警告“任何国家如果认为新冠病毒不会出现在自家门前，那将是一个致命的错误”，而有的国家的政客却大谈“症状非常轻”、“可以自愈”、“会奇迹般消失”。

 

By contrast, Namibia adopted a completely different approach. After the first case was confirmed on March 14, the Namibia government immediately declared a state of national emergency, and took decisive and forceful measures such as lockdown and social distancing. No new cases were reported for more than 30 consecutive days since the report of the 16th case, and no death cases and community transmission occurred. It can be said that Namibia has done a much better job than many western countries, demonstrating the Namibian government’s high sense of responsibility for protecting people’s lives and health.

在这一点上，纳米比亚就采取了完全不同的做法，3月14日确诊首例病例后，随即就宣布进入国家紧急状态，并采取了封城和限制集会等果断有力措施，累计确诊病例16例已维持了30多天无增加，且未出现一例死亡病例和社区感染病例。可以说，纳米比亚比很多西方国家做得更好，展现出一个对民众生命健康高度负责和高效政府姿态。

 

Ⅲ

As we all know, according to international law, the premise for a country to assume “state responsibility” is the conducting of “international wrongful acts.” So, has China committed “international wrongdoing act”? The answer is definitely no.

三

众所周知，根据国际法，一国承担“国家责任”的前提是实施了“国际不法行为”。那么中国实施了“国际不法行为”吗？答案显然是否定的。

 

First of all, the COVID-19 epidemic is a global public health emergency, which is legally considered as “force majeure”. There has never been a precedent in international practice that a country firstly affected by an epidemic should assume “state responsibility”. To this date, no one has required a certain country to be responsible for and compensate for a pandemic such as H1N1, AIDS, and mad cow disease. In 2009, H1N1 flu first broke out in the United States and spread to 214 countries and regions, causing nearly 200,000 deaths. The United States has been confirmed as the source of the virus. Has anyone asked the United States to compensate for that?

首先，这次疫情是世界公共卫生事件，在法律上属于“不可抗力”，国际实践中从没有疫情发生国家应承担“国家责任”的先例。至今没有人提出谁为H1N1流感、艾滋病、疯牛病等流行疾病负责并赔偿。2009年H1N1流感首先在美国大面积爆发，蔓延到214个国家和地区，导致近20万人死亡，美国被确认为病毒来源地，有谁让美国赔偿了吗？

 

Secondly, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, China has always been acted in an open, transparent, and responsible manner and has tried its best to curb the spread of the epidemic. The so-called Chinese cover-up or nonfeasance did not exist. China actively carried out international cooperation. The measures taken in notification, prevention and control are extremely fast, transparent and effective, many of which go well beyond the requirements of the International Health Regulations. Regarding China’s early response to the epidemic, the WHO expert team visited China on site and submitted a comprehensive report, highly appraising China’s response. The Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros has repeatedly stated that “the high speed and massive scale of China’s moves are rarely seen in the world”. China has been working closely with the WHO and its prevention and control measures, diagnosis, and treatment plans are emulated by other countries. China has sent 15 batches of medical experts to 16 countries to help fight against the COVID-19 and has been working day and night to produce anti-epidemic materials for the world. What should China be answered for? On the contrary, those countries saying that COVID-19 is just common flu accounts to a cover-up. Claiming the virus will disappear like a miracle is in fact nonfeasance.

其次，新冠肺炎疫情发生以来，中方没有“隐瞒”，更没有“不作为”，而是一直本着公开、透明、负责任态度，全力遏制疫情扩散蔓延，积极开展国际防控合作，无论在信息通报和疫情防控方面采取的措施都是极其快速、透明和有效的，有关举措在很多方面超出了《国际卫生条例》的要求。关于中国的早期疫情应对，世卫组织专家组曾到中国实地考察，并提交了全面报告，高度评价中国的应对举措。世卫组织总干事谭塞德一再表示，中方行动速度之快、规模之大，举世罕见。中国同世卫组织紧密地合作，中国的防控做法、诊疗方案为世界各国所借鉴，中国向16个国家派出15批医疗专家组，中国加班加点生产防疫物资向世界供应，何责之有？相反，有的国家把新冠肺炎说成是流感，这才是隐瞒；认为病毒“会奇迹般消失”才是不作为。

 

Virus is the enemy of the whole human race. It does not respect borders or races. To defeat the virus, the mankind needs to choose confidence over panic, unity over division, and cooperation over scapegoating. The Chinese people will never forget the heart-warming help from the international community. To reciprocate the goodwill we received, China has actively contributed to global anti-epidemic fight through coordinated response, experience sharing and material support, on the basis of persevering in the domestic prevention and control work and actively fulfilling its own anti-epidemic responsibilities. Justice naturally inhabits man’s heart. No one could discredit or distort the facts and truth that China responds to the COVID-19 in a timely, responsible, and effective way, and history will give its objective and impartial verdict.

病毒是人类的共同敌人，没有国界，不分种族。人类要战胜疫情，需要的是信心而不是恐慌，是团结而不是分裂，是合作而不是推诿。中国人民永远不会忘记国际社会对中国抗疫的真诚帮助，在持之以恒做好国内防控工作、积极履行自身抗疫责任之外，中国也投桃报李，通过协调应对、经验分享、物资支持等举措为全球抗疫斗争贡献中国智慧和中国力量。公道自在人心，任何势力都诋毁和歪曲不了中国及时、负责、有力抗疫的事实真相，历史也必将对中国的抗疫努力作出客观公正的评价。