CHINA-US MUTUAL SUPPORT NEEDED RIGHT NOW

Beijing's top envoy in Washington expressed solidarity on Monday with people in the United States, saying China is doing its best to support the US and other countries in their battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the fight against the virus, we stand together with the people of New York and America," Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the US, said in an opinion piece published in The New York Times on Sunday.

"We are facilitating the US government's purchase of personal protective equipment made in China."

Cui's comments echoed remarks made on Friday by US Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, who said his embassy was "working closely" with Chinese government officials to facilitate the shipment of crucial supplies of protective equipment from China.

In addition, Branstad said, "No one country can fight this battle alone, and I am confident that our two countries will continue to find ways to jointly cooperate to combat this common enemy that threatens the lives of all of us."

In his opinion piece, Cui conceded that there has been "unpleasant talk" between the two nations about the disease. He apparently was referring to the politicizing of the pandemic issue and the blame game regarding origin of the virus.

"But this is not the time for finger-pointing," he said. "This is a time for solidarity, collaboration and mutual support."

The Chinese embassy in the US said on Monday that it had conducted a survey regarding arrangements for charter flights to bring home Chinese students studying abroad, and a decision was taken to give priority to primary and secondary school students.

According to the announcement on the embassy's website, primary and secondary Chinese students younger than age 18 who have stayed in the US either short- or long-term without their parents are now able to register for flights home.

Around 1.6 million Chinese students are studying abroad, and 410,000 of them are in the US, according to the Ministry of Education. An earlier survey found that over 60 percent of the Chinese students in the US would like to return immediately due to the growing number of infections reported in the US.

With summer vacation approaching, it is likely that an increasing number of Chinese students would like to come home, the embassy said.

The US reported more than 330,000 infections, with the death toll creeping toward 10,000 on Sunday.

US President Donald Trump has warned the country to brace for a "horrific" next few weeks.

"The next week and a half, two weeks, I think they're going to be very difficult," Trump said.

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams warned on Sunday, "This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment."

Trump, who made his remark during the White House Coronavirus Task Force news briefing, also said that by Tuesday, 3,000 military and public health workers would be deployed across the nation to cope with the pandemic.

TIMELINE OF CHINA RELEASING INFORMATION ON COVID-19 AND ADVANCING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic is a major public health emergency that has spread the fastest, caused the most extensive infections and been the hardest to contain since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.

Under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, China has taken the most comprehensive, the strictest and the most thorough prevention and control measures to battle the epidemic. In their tenacious fight against the coronavirus, 1.4 billion Chinese people have pulled together in tough times and paid a tremendous price and sacrificed a lot.

With the joint efforts of the whole nation, the positive trend in preventing and controlling the epidemic in China has been constantly consolidated and expanded, and the restoration of normal production and everyday life has been quickened.

The pandemic has recently been spreading rapidly across the world, posing a formidable challenge to global public health security. According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 had affected more than 200 countries and regions with over 1.13 million confirmed cases by April 5, 2020.

Virus knows no national borders, and the epidemic distinguishes no races. Only with solidarity and by cooperation can the international community prevail over the pandemic and safeguard the common homeland of humanity. Upholding the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, China has been timely releasing information on COVID-19 since the onset of the epidemic in an open, transparent and responsible manner, unreservedly sharing with the WHO and the international community its experience in epidemic response and medical treatment, and strengthening cooperation on scientific research. It has also provided assistance to all parties to the best of its ability. All these efforts have been applauded and widely recognized by the international community.

WEST NEEDS TO FOCUS TO WIN ANTI-VIRUS FIGHT

The worst crisis in our lifetime has allowed the world to see the best of China's governance system, compared with the worst of supposedly free Western democratic approaches, which mocks freedom itself and has resulted in chaos and confusion.

Incompetence, inaction, corruption and utter disregard for the common people have caused the decline of the middle class in the United States over the past two decades. The selfish "neoliberal freedom" that ruins and abuses others, while technically within the law, seems the most shameful source of pride for wealthy self-serving Western policymakers.

I am an American and have spent the past 21 years living overseas, watching China's middle-income group rise step by step, while the American middle class plunged into helplessness thanks to self-serving government leaders, and corporate and banking plutocrats.

What did the US' behemoth corporations do with the billions of dollars they saved because of the tax cuts? Did they share the wealth with their underpaid employees to improve their lot or make US society more equitable? No. Instead, they once again used the bulk of the money they saved in the tax cuts to buy back more asset-inflating stocks. It is indeed disappointing to see more of the same duplicity, the same hypocrisy, deep state chaos and incompetence.

This is a crucial juncture, though, which raises hope that common sense values such as civic duty would prevail. A global crisis like the novel coronavirus pandemic requires a competent leader to lead the world in paving the way to a better future. What we saw instead was the US administration and some media outlets launching an anti-China campaign at the beginning of March.

Although weeks later, the US president stopped using the racist term to describe the novel coronavirus, the damage had already been done as confirmed cases had begun rising rapidly because US officials ignored, even trashed, the warnings given by China and the World Health Organization regarding the virus.

VIRUS TESTING ALONG BORDER TO GET A BOOST

China will bolster the capacities of laboratory tests and medical treatment in border areas as part of broader efforts to curb the importation of COVID-19 cases via land entry points, according to a statement released after a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Monday.

The leading group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee for responding to the novel coronavirus, led by the premier, underscored that the number of imported cases via land entry points have exceeded those entering through international flights in recent days.

Provincial authorities in border areas must take full responsibilities in preventing the importation of the pandemic and make sound contingency plans and preparations regarding quarantine facilities, medical observation venues, protection materials and medical workers, the group said.

The country will enforce stronger border management and quarantine measures and adopt closed-loop systems for the management of all incoming personnel via border entries, it said.

The meeting also called for reinforced traffic control measures in border areas, including on shortcuts and other key areas, in addition to stricter quarantine measures for economic cooperative centers and border trade markets.

It also stressed the need to ensure smooth international cargo transport while putting in place adequate containment measures.

The group's decision came as Heilongjiang province reported 33 new imported COVID-19 cases over the weekend, all Chinese nationals returning from Russia.

Other border provincial areas, including Yunnan and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, have also reported multiple imported cases recently.

The meeting reiterated the imperative to step up medical management, epidemiological research, isolation and treatment of asymptomatic patients. The management of recovered patients who tested positive again will also be bolstered.

The enforcement of early detection, reporting and isolation and treatment of patients remained the most effective measure to prevent a possible domestic rebound, and local authorities must report and deal with various epidemic situations in a timely manner, the group said.

It added that relevant information must be made public transparently and accurately, and no concealing and underreporting is allowed.

The group pledged continuous efforts to offer care and support to Chinese citizens overseas and protect their health and safety.

The meeting also highlighted the importance of restoring order of production with a region-specific and tiered approach so that recovery of business activities can be accelerated in more areas.

GUANGDONG STAYS ALERT AMID COVID-19 THREAT

Guangdong province has promised to continue tackling the spread of COVID-19 in the coming weeks as three of the province's districts and a county have been upgraded from low-risk to medium-risk areas.

The work to fight COVID-19 is not yet completed, and relevant departments and locals are urged not to relax their vigilance, according to a statement released by the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission on Monday.

Yuexiu and Baiyun districts in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong; Bao'an district in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone; and Huilai county in Jieyang city in eastern part of Guangdong, all of which were previously low-risk areas, were elevated to medium-risk areas on Monday following reports of a number of imported cases in the past several weeks, the statement said.

On Sunday alone, Guangdong, known as the southern gateway of the country, reported seven cases from inbound passengers−two from the United Kingdom, two from Canada, and one each from the United States, Cambodia and Niger.

Gaungdong has reported 172 imported cases as of Sunday.

Meanwhile, the province, which has a population of more than 115 million, reported four asymptomatic COVID-19 patients on Sunday, including one in Guangzhou, two in Shenzhen and another one in Zhongshan.

Leading respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, had urged Guangdong to introduce more effective measures and seek expansion of cooperation with foreign counterparts to prevent and control imported infections and fight against the pandemic.

Zheng Jianrong, director general of the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Commerce, said more effective inspection measures will be introduced in the following weeks.

"Currently, the measures that include nucleic acid tests and two weeks of quarantine for all inbound passengers from abroad will continue to play an important role in preventing the deadly disease from entering the province," Zheng told a news conference in Guangzhou over the weekend.

He Jianfeng, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said relevant departments will also make great efforts to screen and detect asymptomatic COVID-19 patients.

Elsewhere, in Beijing, the fight against COVID-19 remains a challenge, said Xu Hejian, director of Information Office of Beijing Municipal Government.

VIRUS TESTING ALONG BORDER TO GET A BOOST

China will bolster the capacities of laboratory tests and medical treatment in border areas as part of broader efforts to curb the importation of COVID-19 cases via land entry points, according to a statement released after a meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Monday.

The leading group of the Communist Party of China Central Committee for responding to the novel coronavirus, led by the premier, underscored that the number of imported cases via land entry points have exceeded those entering through international flights in recent days.

Provincial authorities in border areas must take full responsibilities in preventing the importation of the pandemic and make sound contingency plans and preparations regarding quarantine facilities, medical observation venues, protection materials and medical workers, the group said.

The country will enforce stronger border management and quarantine measures and adopt closed-loop systems for the management of all incoming personnel via border entries, it said.

The meeting also called for reinforced traffic control measures in border areas, including on shortcuts and other key areas, in addition to stricter quarantine measures for economic cooperative centers and border trade markets.

It also stressed the need to ensure smooth international cargo transport while putting in place adequate containment measures.

The group's decision came as Heilongjiang province reported 33 new imported COVID-19 cases over the weekend, all Chinese nationals returning from Russia.

Other border provincial areas, including Yunnan and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, have also reported multiple imported cases recently.

The meeting reiterated the imperative to step up medical management, epidemiological research, isolation and treatment of asymptomatic patients. The management of recovered patients who tested positive again will also be bolstered.

The enforcement of early detection, reporting and isolation and treatment of patients remained the most effective measure to prevent a possible domestic rebound, and local authorities must report and deal with various epidemic situations in a timely manner, the group said.

It added that relevant information must be made public transparently and accurately, and no concealing and underreporting is allowed.

The group pledged continuous efforts to offer care and support to Chinese citizens overseas and protect their health and safety.

The meeting also highlighted the importance of restoring order of production with a region-specific and tiered approach so that recovery of business activities can be accelerated in more areas.

Authorities in low-risk areas must adjust and refine containment measures as business activities are resumed and cancel any measures that are no longer necessary, the group said.

It added that authorities must guard against complacency and refrain from adopting sweeping approaches.

AIIB LOANS CHINA OVER 2B YUAN TO UPGRADE PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank announced on Tuesday its board of directors has approved a sovereign-backed loan of 2.485 billion yuan ($351 million) as an adaptive way of upgrading China's sustainable public health infrastructure and providing emergency equipment and supplies.

The project, to be supported by AIIB's first emergency assistance loan, aims to strengthen the public health emergency response capacity in Beijing, the capital of China, and Chongqing, the regional center of western China.

The outbreak of COVID-19 triggered China's urgent financial need for support in strengthening its capacity in epidemic prevention and control. Cities with large floating populations have particularly acute financial needs to address such challenges, according to AIIB.

The loan will support the sustainable development of public health infrastructure, systems and emergency response in the two cities. It will help upgrade their respective centers for disease control and prevention, enhance the treatment capacity of medical institutions in dealing with epidemic emergencies, and provide emergency equipment and supplies to front-line public health workers to help contain the outbreak of COVID-19.

"AIIB's response underscores the importance of building resilient public health infrastructure and maintaining robust systems for members to effectively mitigate risks to their populations associated with outbreaks of communicable disease," said AIIB Vice-President Konstantin Limitovskiy.

"The emergency loan demonstrates AIIB's agility in responding positively and effectively to its members' needs during crises," he said.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

We are defined by how we use our power. - Gerry Spence