Politicizing the epidemic ‘disgraceful’: Martin Jacques

By Sun Wei

China has done an extremely effective job in dealing with the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) outbreak and Western politicians who have politicized the epidemic and attacked China’s political system as well as the leadership of the Communist Party of China are absolutely disgraceful, says a British scholar in an exclusive interview with the Global Times.

After more than a month since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in China, the epidemic has been coming under control inside the country with a significant fall in the number of new confirmed cases. However, since the outset, there has been much criticism in the West over China’s response to the epidemic, and some Western media and politicians are far more interested in having a dig at problems of China’s political system than fairly evaluating the measures China has taken.

“China is clearly being extremely effective in dealing with the coronavirus,” Martin Jacques, who was a senior fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University and author of When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order, told the Global Times. “The capacity of the state in China to deal with emergencies of this kind is far more developed and far more capable than could be achieved by any Western government,” the scholar said, noting China is the best in handling a big situation. He attributed this to two reasons: The Chinese state is a very effective institution and the Chinese people expect the government to take the leadership in coping with this kind of emergency and would follow it.

There was slowness to respond in the first instance, but this “may be understandable because it (the virus) was new,” Jacques said. He regarded media and politicians who took the chance to attack China’s political system and the CPC as “disgraceful.” They responded to the grave crisis in China “in a way that was completely lacking in compassion” and simply used it “as a stick to beat China,” Jacques noted, adding that their words and deeds have encouraged a certain kind of racism against all Chinese across the world.

The scholar suggested they listen to the objective assessments of the WHO on China’s efforts to contain the coronavirus. As the COVID-19 spreads around the world, countries and regions are all in the same boat and have to learn from each other, especially from China, to jointly deal with the humanitarian issue, Jacques stressed.

（Source: Global Times）