By Global Times
Published: Apr 25, 2021
Illustration: Chen Xia/GTNow the whole world is talking about how selfish the US is regarding COVID-19 vaccines. The most developed country in the world that talks about human rights the most refuses to export vaccines to other countries that are severely hit by the pandemic. Washington is determined to let its citizens get vaccinated first before it shares vaccines with others.
More than a quarter of Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus now, while about 40 percent of people in the US have received at least one shot. Not everyone wants to get vaccinated, so it is predicted that there will be a surplus of vaccines in the country after mid-May. At the same time, many developing countries are suffering vaccine shortage. In Namibia, an African country with a population of 2.5 million, only 128 people have received two doses of a vaccine until now.
The ugly "America First" doctrine on vaccines was fully revealed by the coronavirus outbreak in India. A humanitarian disaster has developed in the country. However, India's call for Washington to ease curbs on the export of vaccine raw materials was rejected. US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Tuesday that the priority of the country is "ensuring the distribution of a safe and effective vaccine to millions of Americans, to all Americans who are able to take advantage of it." Washington also turned down calls from India, South Africa and others to waive patents on COVID-19 vaccines.
To date, the US has made almost no actual contribution to the global fight against the pandemic. As the most developed country in the world, it did a poor job in the epidemic fight, failing to contribute any positive experiences to other countries. The country imported a huge amount of supplies such as masks and ventilators that were in short supply in the world last year. Washington undermined global cooperation against the virus by attacking the World Health Organization for quite a long time. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is Washington's most important product to fight against the pandemic. But until now it has been used primarily to protect Americans and a limited number of US allies.
"America First" is a very crude principle. It has become a practical guide to bipartisan actions in the US. The former administration of Donald Trump had both said and acted according to this principle. Although the Biden administration hasn't talked about it, it is in fact also acting in line with the principle.
Transmitted to the political center through each American constituency, the US' selfishness has formed a kind of "rightfulness" under American democracy. Meanwhile, Washington is keen to promote its idea of "human rights" to the world. It acts like it has compassion for all humanity, and surprisingly, it does not feel awkward about it at all.
The world cannot allow the US to abuse the right to define international justice. Washington has refused to share vaccines with developing countries proportionally. The world should jointly condemn it, making Washington bend its head, like a rat scurrying across the street with everybody chasing it. However, till today, the US is still arrogantly claiming it is a global moral leader. It even accuses China and Russia's efforts to share vaccines of being "vaccine diplomacy." The US has totally called white black and black white.
The US has misled and hijacked various countries' national security concept. This is where its arrogance comes from. The world is in an era of peaceful development, but US elites have successfully fanned many countries' anxieties over geosecurity, as the US is the one who has the most abundant resources to play the geopolitical game. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest security shock that countries have encountered in recent years, but many countries have deeply fallen into the geopolitical myth and been hijacked by Washington. Therefore, they indulged Washington's misdeeds.
India in fact has become a victim of the US tricks. India already had an economic slump before the outbreak of the pandemic. India's relations with China have been manipulated by the US so severely that even its vaccine assistance provided to other countries took China as a target. However, now India has suddenly become the epicenter of the global pandemic. It is caught in a predicament where it is unable to deal with the situation by itself, receives no support from the US, while it is too embarrassed to accept China's help.
In short, the US has caused harm to the whole world in recent years. Despite being a self-proclaimed world leader, it failed to act as a responsible power in terms of economy, security and the anti-pandemic fight. However, Washington has managed to keep the "moral high ground" and issue orders. It is fair to say that it is the world, including countries like India, that has indulged it. We are suffering a tragedy caused by ourselves.
Lack of international cooperation glaring in India’s epidemic ballooning: Global Times editorial
By Global Times
Published: Apr 24, 2021
A man rides a bicycle on an empty bridge during a weekend lockdown imposed by the government as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 epidemic in Allahabad, India, on Sunday. Photo: AFP
India's COVID-19 epidemic situation is clearly out of control. India on Saturday reported a new single-day high of some 346,000 COVID-19 cases and as many as 2,624 deaths in the past 24 hours. The Indian medical system has, in fact, collapsed. Many hospitals lack oxygen for critically ill patients, and different states and hospitals have said they would "rob" for oxygen. The New Delhi High Court angrily asked the Modi administration to "beg, borrow, steal or import" oxygen to save people's lives.
The Indian government is accused of underestimating the aggressiveness of the coronavirus variant. India not only allowed some large-scale religious activities to be held earlier this year but also did not emphasize basic prevention and control measures such as wearing masks, leading to the recent outbreak of the epidemic. It took less than two months for India's daily COVID-19 infections to jump from about 10,000 to over 300,000. There has never been such a spread rate anywhere in the world, even during the peak of the US' outbreak.
Currently, Western countries have canceled almost all diplomatic personnel exchanges with India, and are quickly moving to suspend flights from India. The US, the UK and some other Western countries have expressed their intention to support India's COVID-19 fight, but have not taken actions yet. The US is still restricting the export of vaccine raw materials that India urgently needs.
India's public health system is weak, so is the Indian society's grassroots organizational capability. Relying on India's own strength to deal with the current situation will very likely worsen this humanitarian disaster. Many infected Indian people have died without being treated. It is very necessary for the international society to cooperate with India to alleviate the epidemic situation. It is all parties' joint responsibility to promote such cooperation together.
China on Thursday has expressed its willingness to provide necessary support and assistance for India to control the epidemic. China-India relations have worsened due to their border disputes. It is a test of whether the two countries can put disputes aside and actively reach urgent cooperation on the COVID-19 fight.
We believe there may be some Indian people who hold a grudge about accepting China's aid. But now, people's lives are at stake, and there is no time for further hesitation. In fact, there are also some Chinese people who oppose proactively offering help to India. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry's statement on Thursday is more representative of China's mainstream attitude.
Developed countries such as the US and the UK have dominated the international public opinion's focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and have shaped the Western world's moral view. Western public opinion has not shown the same concern about India's epidemic situation as it did to that of Europe and the US. Or maybe it is because India's population is too large, and they believe it is not realistic for the West to "save India."
This pandemic shows that the West's getting closer to India is more in a geopolitical sense. There is actually a gap of people's livelihoods and public interests between them. Their closeness to each other is fragile and superficial.
China and India feel more empathy for each other. In terms of fundamental interests, including development and improvement of people's livelihood, the two countries should have been partners in the same camp. But it is a pity that the significance of border disputes is amplified, concealing the true bond of China-India relations and blurring the two countries' huge common interests.
What should be the essence of a country's foreign relations? What is national security comprised of and what are the priorities? These are worth thinking about. At present, geopolitics continues to hold an overwhelming position in international relations, which is not in line with the actual challenges faced by the world today. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the seriousness of this problem. Human society needs the ability to seek truth from facts and get out of this dilemma.
Can China and India take an active exploratory step in this direction together? People will have to wait and see..
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