作者：Alex Ward 来源：Vox
Pressure is mounting on
President Donald Trump to take action against China for its role in hiding the
severity of the coronavirus outbreak. And what he chooses to do
could greatly impact not only the future of the pandemic, but also the world’s
most important global relationship.
Republican lawmakers want
Trump to consider harsh measures against Beijing such as sanctioning Chinese
leaders, opening a formal investigation into the disease’s origins, removing
Chinese pharmaceutical companies from America’s supply chain, and more.
So far, Trump’s only
retribution for the outbreak of over 2 million cases worldwide has
been against the World Health Organization (WHO), an international body that
helps countries identify and curb pandemics. On Tuesday, Trump announced he
was freezing US funding for the WHO while his administration reviews how the
organization handled the early signs of a health crisis out of Wuhan, China,
the disease’s origination point.
But if Trump
actually wanted to reprimand Beijing, what would be the best way for him to do
that? To get a better sense of the options available to him, I asked 12 policy
experts, including US lawmakers, former top US officials, and academics, what
actions they’d recommend the president take.
Their responses,
lightly edited for length and clarity, are below.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), ranking member, Senate Foreign
Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific, and Cybersecurity Policy
First, we need to be
clear that we are talking about the Chinese government and ruling party, not
the people of China. That’s important not only to prevent further escalation of
the destructive anti-Asian racism we see here at home, but also to recognize
Chinese doctors and nurses who were on the front lines from the start,
independent Chinese journalists persecuted for their coverage, and people
across China using the internet to echo Dr. Li Wenliang’s
call for greater transparency, only to be silenced by censors.
We don’t know the
true extent of the Chinese government’s complicity in the spread of the virus,
and we may never have a full picture due to their obfuscation and control of
information. We do know that they lied to their own people and the world about
the details and spread of the virus, and today we face a pandemic that has left
no country untouched.
We need a deliberate
US effort to counter Chinese influence and manipulation of international
institutions. The administration cannot complain about an increasingly
assertive China in international organizations, such as the WHO, when it fails
to appoint diplomats to top posts and uses its own yearly contributions as
blunt instruments rather than tools to shape policies in our interests. When the
United States is absent on the world stage, China is only too happy to fill the
void. This endangers our health security and national security.
Looking forward, we
need to make sure that the United States has a medical supply chain that is not
reliant on China or other foreign suppliers. We need to restore a stronger US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presence in China, as well as
an embedded US presence in the Chinese CDC and unimpeded international access
to identify the origins of the coronavirus.
The United States
must also lead action in the UN Security Council to ensure that in the event of
a declared health emergency, all countries grant on-the-ground access to WHO
officials, as well as require that all countries transparently disseminate
timely public health information to the WHO and to their own people. The WHO
should no longer be at the mercy of a single member-state for information that
affects the security of all countries.
And we need a
commission akin to the 9/11 Commission, as I have called for,
that recommends further actions to ensure that the mistakes that led to this
health pandemic never happen again.
Jacob Stokes, senior policy analyst in the China program,
US Institute of Peace
The US response
should focus on establishing the facts surrounding the virus’s origins and
China’s early missteps in a credible, impartial, and scientific manner. This
approach makes sense for two reasons.
The first is that,
based on reliable reporting about
China’s initial fumbling, the facts appear to be damning on their own. The
United States should make sure that evidence of Chinese mishandling and
politicization of the problem is exhaustively documented and well-understood
around the world. Washington should recognize, however, that letting the facts
speak for themselves will be more convincing to third parties than trying to
embellish or sensationalize. The United States should show, not tell.
Second, in the
contest of governance systems between liberal democracy and authoritarian
capitalism, openness and transparency are advantages — the lack of which
seemingly allowed the virus to take hold in the first instance. Ensuring the
facts are brought to light in a credible way, in conjunction with allies and
multilateral organizations, will pressure China to take responsibility. And it
could result in other positive outcomes as well, such as further boosting
Taiwan’s image abroad.
Next, if one of the
two leading theories about the virus’s origin — that it started in a Wuhan wet market,
or that it accidentally escaped a Chinese
lab that was studying animal coronaviruses — turns out to
be correct, then pressuring Beijing to fix disastrous regulatory and
enforcement failures should obviously be a top priority. The same goes for
upholding China’s commitments to international public health agreements.
The overriding goal
of any response, though, should be preventing another pandemic. Policymakers
should avoid creating incentives for any country, including China, to avoid
reporting a potential outbreak in the future for fear of being blamed or
punished. Imposing sanctions on Chinese officials or allowing victims to sue
China for Covid-19-related damages could dissuade countries from sounding the
alarm early next time.
I generally favor
taking a tougher line toward China on a range of policy issues, from its
assertive military behavior to its human rights crackdown and abusive trade
practices. But there should be some issues both superpowers try to separate
from geopolitical competition, even if they won’t be 100 percent successful,
because those issues are fundamentally negative-sum games.
Nobody “wins” a
pandemic. We should keep that in mind right now.
Michelle Murray, director of global initiatives, Bard
College
First, the United
States should not use China as a scapegoat for the pandemic and its failed
response at home. When the Trump administration refers to the coronavirus as
the “Chinese virus” or
the “Wuhan virus,” it
not only conjures up racist stereotypes that are unethical in their own right,
but also serves to shift the blame for the pandemic squarely onto China.
Without a doubt,
China’s failure to be transparent about the emergence of the virus in November and
its failure to involve international health experts to manage the containment
led the disease to spread throughout the world. It is also true, however, that
the United States is the current
epicenter of the pandemic in no small part because of the
bungled response of the Trump administration and its failure to organize even
minimal preparations.
Put simply, the
blame-shifting from the Trump administration elides the fact that both China
and the United States bear responsibility in creating the conditions that exist
today. An important effect of this rhetoric is that it positions China as a
lesser, distinctly incapable global power relative to the superior United
States, which in turn, precludes the kind of international cooperation that a
pandemic requires.
Second, the United
States must actively seek China’s help in understanding and containing the
novel coronavirus. These efforts should include the creation of an
international working group to coordinate efforts to address the pandemic,
whose mandate encourages the sharing of scientific expertise among states in
order to guide policy.
“NOBODY ‘WINS’ A PANDEMIC.” — JACOB
STOKES, US INSTITUTE OF PEACE
As the first country
to experience the pandemic, Chinese scientists have unique knowledge to
contribute to such an effort and could take a leading role in shaping the
global response to the disease. By designing a response that engages China on
the science of the virus, the US may recognize the important role China can
play in this area, while also sidestepping the many thorny political dynamics
that have characterized US-China relations over the past several years.
Whatever form it
takes, recognition and cooperation must be at the center of any American
response to China’s role in the spread of the coronavirus. If done with care,
these cooperative endeavors could provide the foundation for cooperation in
other areas of US-China relations in the years to come.
Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health, Council
on Foreign Relations
There is really not
much the US can do. We could blame China for causing the outbreak, but the US
was the origin of the 1918 Spanish flu [Editor’s note: this is still disputed]
and arguably the 2009 H1N1 pandemic.
We could say that
China should be held accountable for the pandemic, especially given its initial
mishandling of the outbreak. But our own handling of the outbreak was
characterized by inaction and ineffectiveness, not to mention that in
international politics, we cannot really hold a sovereign state “accountable”
for a disease outbreak.
Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), chair, House Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation
China has not been a
responsible international partner in the global fight against Covid-19.
China’s lack of
transparency and cooperation with the global health community, including the
United States, slowed down our understanding of the virus and how to contain it
— putting the world at far greater risk. In the critical early stages of the virus,
China refused to allow international experts to come to the epicenter of the
virus and suppressed information about the severity of the virus. China is
culpable for their inactions and mismanagement.
But in order for us
to ultimately defeat Covid-19, it will require a coordinated global response.
As one of the world’s most powerful countries, China is a critical actor in the
fight against coronavirus and any future pandemic outbreak.
Moving forward, it’s
incumbent that China understands the important role it plays in the global
health community and acts as a responsible and transparent partner. As chair of
the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and
Nonproliferation, I will continue to press the global community, including
China, to do everything it can to prevent another pandemic outbreak like
Covid-19.
Ryan Hass, China director on the National Security
Council from 2013 to 2017; fellow, Brookings Institution
No one who has been
closely watching the unfolding of this pandemic could conclude that it had
emerged from anywhere other than China, or that China’s negligent initial
response to the outbreak contributed to its spread. The world knew all of this,
even before Washington and Beijing prodded each other into a counterproductive narrative
war.
It’s deeply
unfortunate that the world’s two most capable powers are consumed by
finger-pointing and blame-shifting while the pandemic spreads, literally
killing thousands and destroying economies in its wake.
The United States
will not be able to protect its people until it stamps out the virus in every
corner of the world. Such an outcome will not be possible unless a consortium
of powers pools its capabilities to do so. It’s hard to imagine that occurring
until the United States and China find a way toward even a minimal level of
coordination (e.g., on vaccine trials, production, and delivery).
To keep the focus
where it needs to be in the midst of this crisis — saving lives and stopping
the spread of the virus — it would be helpful if both Washington and Beijing
could commit now, that after the crisis has passed, they both will fully and
transparently support a UN-led after-action report of Covid-19, whereby leading
scientists could determine the origin of the virus, causes of its rapid spread,
and lessons that must be learned to prevent a recurrence.
Jiaqi Liang, assistant professor, University of Illinois
at Chicago
In response to the
Covid-19 outbreak, both the US and China had moments of mismanagement. Amid the
escalated feud between the two countries, we have seen the importance of their
interconnection and the negative impacts of worsened US-China relations.
China has played a
critical role in the global supply chain, including pharmaceutical active ingredients and personal protective equipment
(PPE), which are in high demand in many countries. Also, to
fight the pandemic, we need close cooperation and communication among the global scientific and public
health care communities, in which China is an important actor
with much-needed experiences and lessons.
Meanwhile, the
widespread economic fallout in the US and Europe has taken a toll on China’s
economy, even if the latter has tried to jump-start its economic
activities after a months-long lockdown.
Looking ahead, the
US and China should rebuild their relations through mutual understanding,
continued dialogue, and long-term collaboration.
Daniel Russel, US assistant secretary of state for East
Asian and Pacific affairs from 2013 to 2017; vice president, international
security and diplomacy, Asia Society Policy Institute
Accountability is
needed for China’s failure to close its “wet markets,” as
it pledged to do after the SARS outbreak
But the ability of
the US to lead an appropriate response depends on Washington restoring lost
credibility. So first and foremost, the US government needs to launch an
effective effort to stem the outbreak in America, aid afflicted countries, lead
global coordination through the G20 and the WHO, and rapidly produce a vaccine
against the coronavirus.
Only then will the
US have the credibility needed to hold China to account.
Maria Adele Carrai, associate research scholar,
Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University
It would be an error
for the US to blame China as “responsible” for the Covid-19 outbreak.
According to the International Health Regulations (2005),
state parties have reporting requirements. They have to inform the WHO of all
cases of human influenza caused by a new subtype in their territories within 24
hours. While China did not report immediately, and contributed to a delay in
the global response, it cannot be considered the culprit in a pandemic.
The reason is that
there is no proper definition of international responsibility for pandemics. In
practice, no single actor has been held accountable for pandemics so far. And
while the US can continue to promote reforms in China and reestablish dialogue
and trust, the best response is to increase cooperation with the international
community and lead the development of international health law.
Following the
example of President George W. Bush’s International Partnership on
Avian and Pandemic Influenza, the US could also lead new forms
of international cooperation to increase international coordination,
transparency, and international capacity to identify and contain new pandemics.
This is not the time
for the US to withdraw from international organizations. It is time to actively
participate in them and reform them, filling the gaps in pandemic
accountability and responsibility.
Aaron Friedberg, professor of politics and international
affairs, Princeton University; author, A Contest for
Supremacy: China, America and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia
The time to press
for a full accounting of Beijing’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic will be
once the current crisis has begun to recede.
For the moment,
without getting our hopes up, we should remain open to the possibility of
cooperating with China in fighting the virus and coping with its consequences.
At the same time, however, we should vigorously counter Beijing’s efforts to
rewrite history and cast itself as a savior and a model rather than as the
source of this catastrophe.
In the somewhat
longer term, the United States and other like-minded countries should create an
independent, international “truth commission” to explore the origins and
unfolding of the pandemic.
Aside from whatever
happens with China, the US and other democracies should work together to
enhance coordination and improve cooperation on a wide range of issues, including
reducing their dependence on China for the drugs, medical devices, and other
equipment that will be needed to fight the next global outbreak of infectious
disease.
Mary Gallagher, director of the Center for Chinese
Studies, University of Michigan
The US should
highlight China’s missteps through open sources of information, especially our
media institutions and academic research. In particular, investigative
journalists and academic researchers should analyze China’s official data on
infections and deaths as there is likely significant underreporting.
We should highlight
the institutional and regulatory failures that led to the delay in reporting
and to the punishment of whistleblowers,
activists, and journalists, which continues to this day. Media
outlets outside of China should continue to highlight the censorship,
repression, and information control that squash independent Chinese voices.
More generally,
there should be a strong pushback against the official Chinese Communist Party
narrative that President Xi Jinping and the party [have asserted], instead of
against China’s citizens, civil society, and health care workers.
The US should
reverse its decision to halt funding to the WHO. It should admit to its own
mistakes from late January until early March in downplaying the severity of the
virus. And it should spearhead an international effort to control the pandemic
and develop a successful vaccine.
Marine Lt. Gen. Chip Gregson (Ret.), US assistant
secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs from 2009 to 2011;
senior adviser, Avascent Global Advisors
The best thing we
could do in the wake of China’s past actions is to lead the international
response, building networks of cooperation and sharing research, development,
and logistical support to health workers.
Unfortunately, we’re
forfeiting that chance by missing no opportunity to pick fights with our allies
and friends. The polling on
expectations overseas and even in our hemisphere that we will “do the right
thing” are terrible. We compete over supplies,
and in Asia we are picking counterproductive fights with South Korea and Japan over
cost-sharing.
We grew to
unprecedented power after World War II by helping our allies and friends, in
what used to be called the “free world,” become successful. Democracy grew
around the world, most notably in Taiwan, South Korea, Indonesia, and other
places. Now democracy declines across the globe, in large part because we’ve
forgotten who we are.
If China emerges
from the pandemic as an international leader, we have only ourselves to blame.
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来源时间：2020/4/20 发布时间：2020/4/16
旧文章ID：21409
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