By He Yin
China convened a meeting on Feb. 23 to advance the work on coordinating the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and economic and social development, once again demonstrating to the world its strong organizing and mobilizing capability.
It was an important meeting to sum up the current experiences on epidemic prevention and control and make comprehensive deployment and major measures. It manifested China’s capability, willpower and confidence.
The COVID-19 outbreak is a major public health emergency that has spread in the fastest speed, caused the most extensive infection and is the most difficult to contain in the country since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. To protect the lives and health of the Chinese and safeguard global public health security, China has launched a people’s war against the epidemic with centralized commanding and unified actions.
Both the United Nations and the international society recognized China’s efforts, saying the country’s response is very strong and very impressive, and the measures are unprecedented. The World Health Organization hailed that the leadership and political will demonstrated by China are worth learning from.
Under the command and deployment made by general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping, the Chinese people have stood together and helped each other in the epidemic, and industries of the country also joined the battle against the virus under national coordination.
The country, with great political courage, urged the epicenter Hubei province to implement comprehensive and strict control of population outflow, and dispatched over 41,600 medical staff from 330 medical teams to assist the province. Besides, makeshift hospitals Huoshenshan and Leishenshan, as well as Fang Cang, were built in a record speed, and 19 provinces offered paired assistance.
These “missions impossible” were accomplished by China in a very short period of time, which enhanced the confidence of the international society in China’s victory over the epidemic.
Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin noted that the Chinese government’s strong organizing and mobilizing capabilities demonstrated in the epidemic were impressive, and such capabilities were exactly China’s institutional advantages.
In the meantime, China is also enhancing economic and social development amid epidemic control, trying its best to reduce the impact from the epidemic on its social progress. It is believed by the international society that China is in a leading position in terms of leadership, response, mobilization and execution, and has set an example for the world in epidemic control.
As a Chinese saying goes, good governors deal with matters at hand, great governors make improvement on the system. During the work of epidemic prevention and control, China has always been improving its national governance system and capability, eyeing its future capacity to deal with emergencies.
The country is taking effective and concrete actions to enhance its legal safeguard for public health, improve disease prevention and control system, reform prevention and control system for major epidemics, improve medical insurance and aiding system for major diseases, and strengthen the unified system for emergency supplies. By doing so, it will be able to turn the experiences in the epidemic into practical mechanisms to cope with major public health emergencies.
The exploration and efforts made by China on national governance well explained that socialism with Chinese characteristics is advancing with the time. The system is an important institutional guarantee for China and offers valuable experiences for the world to win the battle against the virus.
To prevail over a disease that threatens all, unity and cooperation are the most powerful weapon. Guided by the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind, China is acting with a sense of responsibility not only for the lives and health of its own people, but also for global public health.
China actively cooperated and exchanged information with WHO and the international community, shared the whole genome sequence of the virus strain at the first opportunity, and rapidly developed the testing kit. The country has also endeavored to curb the spread of the virus outside its territory by giving support and assistance to other countries and regions affected.
These actions reflect the sense of responsibility of a major country, and underline the open mind of socialism with Chinese characteristics, setting the tone of the concerted efforts of the world in combatting the epidemic.
Over 170 heads of state and 40 leaders of international and regional organizations have voiced sympathies and support for China, conveying their high recognition over China’s responsible measures.
Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Chairman of the Kuhn Foundation in the U.S. recently had a profound analysis over China’s prevention and control measures. He said history may well thank China for pioneering how to deal with virulent contagions in a globalised world.
The world must be aware that combating the epidemic calls for the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind. China’s explorations and practices have enlightened the world – global countries must showcase strong mobilizing capabilities, improve governance system and capability, and enhance solidarity and cooperation with an opener spirit, so as to withstand the test of epidemics.
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