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<font size="1"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/31/growing-xenophobia-against-china-in-the-midst-of-coronashock/">https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/03/31/growing-xenophobia-against-china-in-the-midst-of-coronashock/</a>
</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Growing Xenophobia Against China in the Midst of CoronaShock<br></h1>
<span class="gmail-post_author_intro">by</span> <span class="gmail-post_author"><a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/author/vjprddxjw9949/" rel="nofollow">Vijay Prashad, Du Xiaojun – Weiyan Zhu</a></span> - March 31, 2020<br></div>
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<div id="gmail-attachment_121061" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/dropzone/2020/03/49566647416_972bb24a1e_c.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="358"></p><p id="gmail-caption-attachment-121061" class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Photograph Source: susanjanegolding – <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY 2.0</a></p></div>
<p>On March 25, the foreign ministers of the G7 states failed to release
a statement. The United States—the president of the G7 at this time—had
the responsibility for drafting the statement, which was seen to be
unacceptable by several other members. In the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/25/politics/g7-coronavirus-statement/index.html">draft</a>,
the United States used the phrase “Wuhan Virus” and asserted that the
global pandemic was the responsibility of the Chinese government.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/us/politics/china-virus.html">used</a> the phrase “Chinese Virus” (which he said he would stop using) and a member of his staff was reportedly <a href="https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1239923246801334283">heard</a> using the slur “Kung Flu.” On Fox News, anchor Jesse Watters <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv8ddtv42IE&feature=youtu.be">explained</a>
in his unfiltered racist way “why [the virus] started in China. Because
they have these markets where they eat raw bats and snakes.” Violent
attacks against Asians in the United States has <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TRU-ZJcjPQj7EoAnjxGbHo7CTnoOnGXHhjk5VDuKnyQ/view">spiked</a> as a consequence of the stigma driven by the Trump administration.</p>
<p>Quite correctly, the World Health Organization’s Director-General
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “solidarity, not stigma” in a <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-COVID-2019-outbreak-on-14-february-2020">speech</a>
given on February 14, long before the virus had hit Europe or North
America. Ghebreyesus knew that there would be a temptation to blame
China for the virus, in fact, to use the virus as a weapon to attack
China in the most repulsive way. His slogan —solidarity, not stigma—was
intended to sharply demarcate an internationalist and humanist response
to the global pandemic from a narrow bigoted and unscientific response
to the virus.</p>
<p><b>Origins</b></p>
<p>SARS-CoV-2, which is the official name for the virus, developed in
the way many viruses develop: through the transmission between animals
and humans. There is as yet no firm consensus about where this virus
developed; one suggestion is that it developed in the west end of the
Hunan Wholesale Sea Food Market in Wuhan, in China’s Hubei province,
where wild animals are sold. A central issue is the <a href="https://monthlyreview.org/2020/03/27/covid-19-and-circuits-of-capital/">expansion</a>
of agriculture into forests and hinterlands, where humans have a
greater chance to interact with new pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2. But
this is not the only such virus, even though it is undoubtedly the most
dangerous to humans. In the recent period, we have seen a range of
panzootic avian flu such as H1N1, H5Nx, H5N2 and H5N6. Even though H5N2
was known to have originated in the United States, it was not known as
the “American virus” and no-one sought to stigmatize the United States
for it. The scientific name was used to describe these viruses, which
are not the responsibility of this or that nation; the arrival of these
viruses raises the more fundamental question of human encroachment into
forests and the balance between human civilization (agriculture and
cities) and the wilds.</p>
<p>The naming of a virus is a controversial matter. In 1832, cholera
advanced from British India toward Europe. It was called “Asiatic
Cholera.” The French felt that since they were democratic, they would
not succumb to a disease of authoritarianism; France was ravaged by
cholera, which was as much about the bacteria as it is about the state
of hygiene inside Europe and North America. (When cholera struck the
United States in 1848, the Public Bathing Movement was born.)</p>
<p>The “Spanish Flu” was only named after Spain because it came during
World War I when journalism in most belligerent countries was censored.
The media in Spain, not being in the war, widely reported the flu, and
so that pandemic took the name of the country. In fact, evidence showed
that the Spanish Flu began in the United States, in a military base in
Kansas where the chickens transmitted the virus to soldiers. It would
then travel to British India, where 60 percent of the casualties of that
pandemic took place. It was never named the “American Flu” and no
Indian government has ever sought to recover costs from the United
States because of the animal-to-human transmission that happened there.</p>
<p><b>China and the Coronavirus</b></p>
<p>In an important <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext">article</a>
published in the medical journal The Lancet, Professor Chaolin Huang
wrote, “The symptom onset date of the first patient [of SARS-CoV-2]
identified was December 1, 2019.” Initially, there was widespread
confusion about the nature of the virus, and whether it could be
transmitted from human to human. It was assumed that the virus was one
of the known viruses and that it was mainly transmitted from animals to
humans.</p>
<p>Dr. Zhang Jixian, director of the Department of Respiratory and
Critical Care Medicine of Hubei Province Hospital of Integrated Chinese
and Western Medicine, was one of the first doctors to sound the alarm
about the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak. On December 26, Dr.
Zhang saw an elderly couple who had high fever and a cough—symptoms that
characterize the flu. Further examination ruled out influenza A and B,
mycoplasma, chlamydia, adenovirus and SARS. A CT scan of their son
showed that something had partially filled the interior of his lungs.
That same day, another patient—a seller from the seafood
market—presented the same symptoms. Dr. Zhang reported the four patients
to China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Jianghan
District of Wuhan. Over the next two days, Dr. Zhang and her colleagues
saw three more patients with the same symptoms who had visited the
seafood market. On December 29, the Hubei Provincial Center for Disease
Control and Prevention <a href="https://news.sina.cn/gn/2020-02-02/detail-iimxyqvy9611122.d.html?vt=4&sid=256278">sent</a> experts to investigate the seven patients at the hospital. On February 6, Hubei Province <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2020-02/06/c_1125540130.htm">recognized</a>
the valuable work done by Dr. Zhang and her team in the fight to
identify and reveal the virus. There was no attempt to suppress her
work.</p>
<p>Two other doctors—Dr. Li Wenliang (an ophthalmologist from Wuhan
Central Hospital) and Ai Fen (chief of the department of emergency
treatment at Wuhan Central Hospital)—played a significant role in trying
to break through the confusion to bring clarity toward the new virus.
In the first days, when everything seemed fuzzy, they were reprimanded
by the authorities for spreading fake news. Dr. Li died of the
coronavirus on February 7. Major medical and government institutions—the
<a href="http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/s3574/202002/680b01ada7604820a155dd7e9fd89ba6.shtml">National Health Commission</a>, the <a href="http://wjw.hubei.gov.cn/fbjd/dtyw/202002/t20200207_2020688.shtml">Health Commission of Hubei Province</a>, the <a href="http://www.cmda.net/jrtt/13481.jhtml">Chinese Medical Doctor Association</a> and the<a href="http://www.wh.gov.cn/hbgovinfo/zwgk_8265/tzgg/202002/t20200207_304499.html"> Wuhan government</a> —expressed their public condolences to his family. On March 19, the Wuhan Public Security Bureau <a href="https://news.china.com/socialgd/10000169/20200320/37946105_all.html">admitted</a>
that it inappropriately reprimanded Dr. Li, and it chastised its
officers. Dr. Ai Fen was also told to stop spreading fake news, but in
February she received an apology and was later <a href="http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2020/02-20/9098298.shtml">felicitated</a> by Wuhan Broadcasting and Television Station.</p>
<p>The provincial authorities knew about the new virus by December 29.
The next day, they informed China’s Center for Disease Control, and the
following day, on December 31, China informed the World Health
Organization (WHO), a month after the first mysterious infection was
reported in Wuhan. The virus was identified by January 3; a week later,
China shared the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus with WHO. It is
because China released the DNA that immediate scientific work took
place across the planet to find a vaccine; there are now 43 vaccine
candidates, four in very early testing.</p>
<p>China’s National Health Commission <a href="http://news.cctv.com/2020/01/20/ARTIpp9O9wIAhOmowTydRmT0200120.shtml">assembled</a>
a team of experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and
Prevention, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and the Chinese
Academy of Sciences; they conducted a series of experiments on the virus
samples. On January 8, they confirmed that the novel coronavirus was
indeed the source of the outbreak. The first death from the virus was
reported on 11 January. On January 14, the Wuhan Municipal Health
Commission <a href="http://wjw.wuhan.gov.cn/front/web/showDetail/2020011409039">said</a>
that there was still no evidence of human-to-human transmission, but
they could not say with certainty that limited human-to-human
transmission was impossible.</p>
<p>A week later, on January 20, Dr. Zhong Nanshan <a href="https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2020-01-21/doc-iihnzahk5456866.shtml">said</a>
that the novel coronavirus could be spread from human to human (Dr.
Zhong, a member of the Communist Party of China, is a famous respiratory
expert and a leading person in the fight against SARS in China). Some
medical workers were infected by the virus. That day Chinese President
Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/mrdx/2020-01/21/c_138722783.htm">instructed</a>
all levels of government to pay attention to the spread of the virus;
the National Health Commission and other official bodies were told to
begin emergency response measures. Wuhan <a href="http://www.hb.xinhuanet.com/2020-01/23/c_1125496006.htm">went</a>
into full lockdown on January 23, three days after human-to-human
transmission of this virus was established. The next day, Hubei province
<a href="http://www.hubei.gov.cn/zhuanti/2020/gzxxgzbd/zxtb/202001/t20200124_2014659.shtml">activated</a> its Level-1 alert. On January 25, Premier Li assembled a coordinating group. He <a href="http://news.youth.cn/sz/202001/t20200127_12178609.htm">visited</a> Wuhan two days later.</p>
<p>It is unclear if China could have done anything different as it faced
an unknown virus. A WHO team that visited China from February 16 to 24
praised the government and the Chinese people in its <a href="https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf">report</a>
for doing their utmost to stem the spread of the virus; thousands of
doctors and medical personnel arrived in Wuhan, two new hospitals were
built for those infected by the virus, and various civic bodies went
into action to assist families under lockdown. What the Chinese
authorities did to stem the rise of the infections—as a major new <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.03.20030593v1.full.pdf">study</a>shows—was
to put those infected in hospitals and those who had been in touch with
them into quarantine. This targeted policy was able to identify those
who had been in the chain of infection and thereby break the chain.</p>
<p><b>The World and China</b></p>
<p>The Indian state of Kerala’s Health Minister K. K. Shailaja <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/03/24/an-often-overlooked-region-of-india-is-a-beacon-to-the-world-for-taking-on-the-coronavirus/">followed</a>
the rise of the cases in Wuhan and began emergency measures in this
state of 35 million people in India. She did not wait. What China was
doing taught Shailaja and her team how to respond. They were able to
contain the virus in this part of India.</p>
<p>The United States was informed about the severity of the problem
early. On New Year’s Day, the Chinese Center for Disease Control
officials called Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, while he was on vacation. “What he heard
rattled him,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/testing-coronavirus-pandemic.html">wrote</a>
the New York Times. Dr. George F. Gao, the head of the Chinese CDC,
spoke to Redfield days later, and Dr. Gao “burst into tears” during the
conversation. This warning was not taken seriously. A month later, on
January 30, U.S. President Donald Trump took a very cavalier position.
“We think it’s going to have a good ending for us,” he <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-triggers-damage-control-from-governments-companies-11580396657">said</a>
of the coronavirus. “That I can assure you.” He did not declare a
national emergency till March 13, by which time the virus had begun to
spread in the United States.</p>
<p>Others around the world were as cavalier. They were like the French
politicians of 1832 who felt that France would not be affected by
“Asiatic cholera.” There was no such thing as Asiatic cholera in 1832,
but only cholera that would harm people with poor hygienic systems. In
the same way, there is no such thing as a Chinese virus; there is only
the SARS-CoV-2. The Chinese people showed us the way to confront this
virus, but only after some trial and error on their part. It is time to
learn that lesson now. As the WHO <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---16-march-2020">says</a>,
“test, test, test,” and then carefully calibrate lockdowns, isolations,
and quarantine. Chinese doctors who developed expertise in fighting the
virus are now in Iran, Italy, and elsewhere, bringing the spirit of
internationalism and collaboration with them.</p>
<p>On March 4, Dr. Bruce Aylward, who led the WHO team to China, was
interviewed by the New York Times. When asked about the Chinese response
to the virus, he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/health/coronavirus-china-aylward.html">said</a>,
“They’re mobilized, like in a war, and it’s fear of the virus that was
driving them. They really saw themselves on the frontlines of protecting
the rest of China. And of the world.”</p>
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<p><em>Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/globetrotter/">Globetrotter</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is the chief editor of <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y976jlvu">LeftWord Books</a> and the director of <a href="http://thetricontinental.org/">Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research</a>. He has written more than twenty books, including <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Darker-Nations-Peoples-History-Third/dp/1595583424/?tag=alternorg08-20">The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World</a> (The New Press, 2007), <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Poorer-Nations-Possible-History-Global/dp/1781681589/?tag=alternorg08-20">The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South</a> (Verso, 2013), <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Death-Nation-Future-Arab-Revolution/dp/0520293266/?tag=alternorg08-20">The Death of the Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution</a> (University of California Press, 2016) and <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Red-Star-Over-Third-World-ebook/dp/B0799NP7DD/?tag=alternorg08-20">Red Star Over the Third World</a> (LeftWord, 2017).</em></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Du Xiaojun works as a translator and is based in
Shanghai. His research is in international relations, cross-cultural
communication, and applied linguistics.</em></p>
<p><em>Weiyan Zhu is a lawyer based in Beijing. She is interested in social and political issues.</em></p>
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