China sets reliable example for fight against COVID-19

A medical supplies handover ceremony is held in Lhasa, Tibet autonomous region on April 10. The materials, including COVID-19 testing equipment, reagents, virus sampling tubes, protective suits, N95 respiratory masks, thermometers and disinfectant wipes, are donations from the autonomous region to Nepal, which is in urgent need.

China has been supporting other countries’ fight against the COVID-19 since the virus began to spread around the world.

With the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind, China has donated medical supplies and sent medical experts overseas, shared its anti-pandemic experience with other nations and actively promoted international cooperation.

Providing medical supplies

So far the Chinese government has donated or is donating medical supplies including medical masks, protective suits and testing reagents to 127 countries and four international organizations.

Individuals and private organizations from China have also contributed to the global supply of medical materials. For example, Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, and the Joe Tsai Foundation donated 2.6 million masks, 170,000 goggles, 2,000 ventilators and other medical supplies to the New York State of the United States, which was much appreciated by its governor.

Amid a huge global shortage of medical supplies, China has made great efforts and overcome difficulties to produce sufficient materials to meet demand around the world.

Nearly four billion masks have been exported from China since March. Exported medical supplies from March 1 to April 4 were valued at 10.2 billion yuan ($1.44 billion) by Chinese customs, according to a report of Agence France-Presse.

Chinese medical supplies including two million masks and 300,000 protective suits reached Berlin, capital of Germany, on April 4, according to Deutsche Welle, a public media outlet in the country, and from April 6 the medical supplies were deployed to various institutions such as hospitals, sanatoriums and police stations.

On March 29, the first airplane with urgently needed medical supplies from China arrived in New York, which was followed by 22 such fights from the end of March to the beginning of April, according to the Columbia Broadcasting System.

China’s exports of medical supplies have brought hopes for the anti-pandemic efforts around the world, according to the United States’ Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Dispatching medical experts

So far, China has sent 13 medical expert teams to 11 countries and held over 70 videoconferences with experts from more than 150 nations and international organizations to share its anti-pandemic experience.

During the hard moments of combating the pandemic, China sent several medical expert teams to Italy to provide humanitarian assistance, said Pierpaolo Sileri, Italian vice-minister of health. He appreciated China’s support for his country in its battle against COVID-19.

It’s admirable for Chinese medical experts to publicize anti-pandemic methods and give training in provinces of Iraq, said the country’s minister of health and environment, adding that sometimes they even went through regions with security risks.

China has also shared technological documents on COVID-19 prevention and control as well as diagnosis and treatment guidelines with over 100 countries and more than 10 international and regional organizations.

Sharing scientific statistics and information is the foundation of international cooperation and the responsible sharing from China has benefited and also will benefit global medical improvement and development, said Masahiro Kami, the head of Medical Governance Research Institute in Japan.

Promoting international cooperation

China has been actively promoting and carrying out international cooperation to curb the pandemic.

At the Extraordinary G20 Leaders' Summit on COVID-19 held on March 26, China was committed to sharing anti-pandemic practices, jointly developing medicines and vaccines, and providing assistance to countries undergoing outbreaks of the infectious disease.

China’s overseas assistance and calls for global cooperation to fight against the pandemic profoundly reflect the importance of the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, according to Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a Swiss newspaper.

China has been cooperating with countries around the world to combat the pandemic and is doing a good job to control the disease domestically, said Selim Belortaja, Albania ambassador to China. China has bought time for the world to curb the COVID-19, setting a reliable example for global anti-pandemic efforts.