Opinion
Andres Oppenheimer
Fri, December 25, 2020
Andres Oppenheimer
Fri, December 25, 2020
When I read a just-released report by China’s official Xinhua agency, saying that China has set a world “example” of solidarity with Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic, I thought, “These people have no shame!.”
I don’t believe in conspiracy theories claiming China intentionally created or spread the coronavirus, but there’s little doubt that China’s delay in telling the world about its outbreak in Wuhan province was a major blunder. Many of the world’s 1.7 million COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented if China had alerted the world early on about the problem.
So when I read the Xinhua agency’s Dec. 23 report, I knew immediately that it was classic political hypocrisy.
Its headline claims that China and Latin America have set an “example of solidarity against common challenges” during the pandemic.
“Like a giant ship unperturbed by choppy waters, the relationship between China and Latin America and the Caribbean has been sailing steadily amid a turbulent 2020,” the report started out.
In a tacit slap at President Trump’s “vaccine nationalism,” the Xinhua report noted that when the virus hit Latin America, “China was the first country to lend a helping hand.”
As early as on March 23, China had its first virtual meeting on epidemic prevention and control with Latin American governments. The report said that, shortly thereafter, China “set up the first ever air bridge with both Argentina and Mexico to deliver much-needed medical supplies.”
Granted, China’s “medical diplomacy” is probably a damage-control strategy to make up for its failure to alert the world about the pandemic in early 2020. But a closer look at China’s recent actions shows that Beijing has been more engaged than Washington in helping Latin America get COVID-19 vaccines.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi announced in July a $1 billion loan to Latin American and Caribbean countries to buy Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines.
In addition, China has signed the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX, a World Health Organization effort to ensure every country has access to vaccine.. This global effort has been funded by Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and Estonia, among others, and has already raised almost $2 billion of its initial $5 billion fundraising goal.
By comparison, Trump has boycotted the COVAX effort. He also signed a Dec. 8 executive order that bars the United States from sending vaccines to any other country, and then bragged about it publicly.
The U.S. government has delivered more than $220 million in COVID-19 assistance to Latin American and the Caribbean, according to the U.S. Southern Command, more than any other country. But many experts say that China has given more.
Benjamin Gedan, deputy director of the Latin American program at the Washington D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told me that, “Since the start of the pandemic, the Chinese have been more responsible and more generous in Latin America than the United States.”
As of now, there is no prospect of the U.S. exporting one single vaccine to the region, Gedan told me.
Asked about Trump’s Dec. 8 executive order, Gedan said that, “Instead of using this as an opportunity to signal U.S. support for the developing world, Trump boasted about the fact that the U.S. would not export any vaccines. It’s the most counter-productive messaging that anyone could have imagined.”
Of course, Trump can’t be blamed for taking care of his country’s people first. It’s any president’s responsibility to do that. But Trump’s nationalist demagoguery, in addition to being bad public relations and a terrible way to counter China’s growing inroads in Latin America, suggests that Americans can be safe if the pandemic continues to expand globally. In fact, the opposite is true.
There are many ways in which the United States can help Latin America fight the pandemic other than shipping out vaccines, including contributing funds to the COVAX global vaccination effort. The United States’ failure to contribute to COVAX is an international embarrassment.
There are no heroes in this tragedy: Both China and the United States have failed the test of being responsible global citizens. It’s time for incoming president-elect Biden to announce America’s commitment to the COVAX effort and correct this shameful chapter of U.S. history.
I don’t believe in conspiracy theories claiming China intentionally created or spread the coronavirus, but there’s little doubt that China’s delay in telling the world about its outbreak in Wuhan province was a major blunder. Many of the world’s 1.7 million COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented if China had alerted the world early on about the problem.
So when I read the Xinhua agency’s Dec. 23 report, I knew immediately that it was classic political hypocrisy.
Its headline claims that China and Latin America have set an “example of solidarity against common challenges” during the pandemic.
“Like a giant ship unperturbed by choppy waters, the relationship between China and Latin America and the Caribbean has been sailing steadily amid a turbulent 2020,” the report started out.
In a tacit slap at President Trump’s “vaccine nationalism,” the Xinhua report noted that when the virus hit Latin America, “China was the first country to lend a helping hand.”
As early as on March 23, China had its first virtual meeting on epidemic prevention and control with Latin American governments. The report said that, shortly thereafter, China “set up the first ever air bridge with both Argentina and Mexico to deliver much-needed medical supplies.”
Granted, China’s “medical diplomacy” is probably a damage-control strategy to make up for its failure to alert the world about the pandemic in early 2020. But a closer look at China’s recent actions shows that Beijing has been more engaged than Washington in helping Latin America get COVID-19 vaccines.
China’s foreign minister Wang Yi announced in July a $1 billion loan to Latin American and Caribbean countries to buy Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines.
In addition, China has signed the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX, a World Health Organization effort to ensure every country has access to vaccine.. This global effort has been funded by Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Italy and Estonia, among others, and has already raised almost $2 billion of its initial $5 billion fundraising goal.
By comparison, Trump has boycotted the COVAX effort. He also signed a Dec. 8 executive order that bars the United States from sending vaccines to any other country, and then bragged about it publicly.
The U.S. government has delivered more than $220 million in COVID-19 assistance to Latin American and the Caribbean, according to the U.S. Southern Command, more than any other country. But many experts say that China has given more.
Benjamin Gedan, deputy director of the Latin American program at the Washington D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, told me that, “Since the start of the pandemic, the Chinese have been more responsible and more generous in Latin America than the United States.”
As of now, there is no prospect of the U.S. exporting one single vaccine to the region, Gedan told me.
Asked about Trump’s Dec. 8 executive order, Gedan said that, “Instead of using this as an opportunity to signal U.S. support for the developing world, Trump boasted about the fact that the U.S. would not export any vaccines. It’s the most counter-productive messaging that anyone could have imagined.”
Of course, Trump can’t be blamed for taking care of his country’s people first. It’s any president’s responsibility to do that. But Trump’s nationalist demagoguery, in addition to being bad public relations and a terrible way to counter China’s growing inroads in Latin America, suggests that Americans can be safe if the pandemic continues to expand globally. In fact, the opposite is true.
There are many ways in which the United States can help Latin America fight the pandemic other than shipping out vaccines, including contributing funds to the COVAX global vaccination effort. The United States’ failure to contribute to COVAX is an international embarrassment.
There are no heroes in this tragedy: Both China and the United States have failed the test of being responsible global citizens. It’s time for incoming president-elect Biden to announce America’s commitment to the COVAX effort and correct this shameful chapter of U.S. history.
CHINA TOLD THE WORLD IN DECEMBER 2019 IT HAD AN OUTBREAK OF AN UNKOWN VIRUS, IT GAVE OUT THE GENETIC CODE FOR THE VIRUS IN THE FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY 2020!!!! FOR CHINA THIS WAS VERY FORTHCOMING COULD THEY HAVE SAID SOMETHING EARLIER, APPARENTLY NOT SINCE THE OUTBREAK BEGAN IN NOVEMBER BUT WAS NOT DETECTED TILL DECEMBER IN WUHAN
AS IT BECAME A SIGNIFICANT OUTBREAK.
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