Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
With well over 870,000 confirmed infections and 40,000 deaths worldwide, COVID-19, the disease caused by the fast-spreading new coronavirus, has caused global havoc.
In any crisis, even in the midst of a pandemic, there is a moment where everybody might benefit from taking a deep breath and thinking clearly about the way forward.
Techno-nationalism is resurgent in the world today, and it comes at a time of more intense strategic friction between the United States and China, compared to the U.S.-Japan trade battles and technology competition from three decades ago.
The United States and China worked together to combat the SARS and H5N1 outbreaks, but the new coronavirus has been met with finger-pointing and recrimination.
Can the World Health Organization (WHO) be better than the member states of the United Nations that ultimately have a considerable say on its operations?
China’s producers hope to restore capacity in the weeks ahead, but sagging demand in export markets could hold back economic recovery.
China has tried to carefully manage relations with the United States while deploying its expanded economic and military strength around the world. The coronavirus has further strained China’s ties with the United States and raised questions about Beijing’s global leadership.
The secret vote for the director post at the World Intellectual Property Organization has handed China a crushing defeat, with an official from Singapore winning by 55-28 against China’s candidate, a long-time UN civil servant in the agency.
The democratic pressure does not seem to be diminishing and could have political consequences in the elections later this year.
The coronavirus outbreak has exposed just how difficult it’s becoming for China and the United States to cooperate—even in situations when the lives of their citizens are at stake.