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Tafadzwa Mugwadi Correspondent

When coronavirus (COVID-19) erupted in the People’s Republic of China, barely a few days before the world’s rapidly growing economy celebrated its Lunar New Year holiday, the world panicked.

This was primarily caused by the fact that, firstly, mainland China has become a global destination for the rest of the world, as the country’s cities have become global capitals economically, technologically, socially and of course militarily if you want.

The country has become a shining example for its counterparts in the developing world and as such, receives high volumes of foreign travellers engaged in various forms of trade, from commodities to tourism and students in search of academic greener pastures.

One would be forgiven to say that in either of the spheres mentioned above, every country in the world looks up to China in its own unique way, based on its own unique circumstances.

Secondly, panic batons were pressed by an overdrive naked propaganda which became the daily supper for global citizens from global hostile media.

Indeed, the Western global media networks — print, radio and television — presented China a couple of weeks ago as “a never go-to area.”

Of course, the country, through its diplomats across the world, clearly and vividly discouraged visits to mainland China to ensure that efforts to contain the virus which are underway at home did not get disturbed.

So, yes, in so far as the country is seized with containing the spread of the disease, it is probably a no-go area, but certainly not a never-go-to area.

The government of President Xi Jinping issued a statement that it had suspended all tour groups and the sale of flight and hotel packages for its citizens headed overseas, as well as discouraging foreigners from travelling into the country.

The same message was conveyed to other countries across the world by Chinese diplomats.

However, as was expected, the hostile media presented China as if it had become a hell on earth, far from the realities that were obtaining on the ground.

Global media networks that have benefited from and interacted with China through various platforms, including the BRRN initiative, could not have been handier than at this critical hour, when the world needed to be disabused of a diet of hostile reporting, deliberate misrepresentations of statistics and progress, as well as the emerging trend to portray the country as a curse.

Amid solidarity from sister republics, both in kind and morally, the Chinese system has once again stood tall in fighting the disease in a manner that has left the world marvelling at the Communist Republic’s efficient system of handling challenges inspired from the country’s undying ethos of its revolutionary ideals.

According to the World Health Organisation (2020) coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which may cause illness in animals or humans through respiratory infections ranging from common colds to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) etc.

As the fight against the disease is on course to conclude, with the decline of new infections, hospitalised and quarantined people, the efficiency that the Chinese system has demonstrated in handling this deadly disease which could have turned out to be a global disaster needs telling.

Although the disease has since spread out of the Chinese borders, the magnitude is not as much as that which was seen during the 2009 H1N1 virus which spread from France.

According to official statistics, the virus has claimed over 2 780 people to date in China, with Hubei Province being the hardest hit.

The number of deaths per day on average in China was as high as 100, but the good news is that it had reduced to 29 deaths by Wednesday, marking a sharp decline since February 11.

The number of new infections had also reduced from over 2 000 a day to around 400.

It should be pointed out that this is not the first such deadly outbreak across the world and back home here in Africa.

Spontaneously, Africa has been confronted by Ebola which has tended to spread from north and central Africa. The magnitude of deaths which have been incurred following such outbreaks needs no further discussion.

In France, the outbreak of swine flu in 2009 resulted in heavy casualties, as well as numerous cases of global infections, including sadly, in countries where governments were not in a better position to contain and treat the disease.

France was hit by an influenza, H1N1 virus or swine-flu which left over 1 100 deaths in the country, while its global scientific and laboratory confirmed death toll was reported to be 1 836 by WHO; some say the death toll was actually over 200 000, including those who could not be tested.

This triggered theories of nefarious plots in laboratories where these outbreaks were believed to be manufactured in connivance with global pharmaceutical companies who in turn will be on standby to amass huge proceeds from medical and drug sales across the globe as countries battle to contain the outbreak.

However, when China was confronted by this virus, the world must have been treated to a new strategy of humanitarian oriented diplomacy from the People’s Republic of China.

It is unprecedented that a country would come out so publicly to discourage the world from visiting it until the disease was contained.

In this era of global tourism as one of the major foreign currency earners for countries such as China, where every city in the country is a tourist destination, who would have imagined the world’s fastest growing economy to brave the pressure of losing billions of dollars from cancelled flights, halted tourism and trade, simply to protect the interests of the global citizen?

And as reported in various platforms, China has lost billions of dollars due to travel restrictions on foreigners ordered by the country to contain the disease. Who else among the so-called free world would express such esteemed levels of concern for the world at the expense of a growing industry and heavy financial loses?

In a major demonstration of State responsibility, the Chinese government took those bold steps to protect the world from a containable outbreak, but one that is vicious enough to engulf the whole world.

For this, the Asian superpower deserves a place on the diplomatic sun, for showing the way, that in this global era, there is a limit to which states must express themselves in the classical Machiavellian or Hobbesian Realism whose hallmark is selfish interest and preservation.

The boldness of the Chinese in taking this giant humanitarian diplomatic step at the expense of losing billions should be commendable as a strong lesson for the entirety of the global superpowers, that indeed, the world can be a family once more if those with the means act to serve the collective.

China is equally making a huge diplomatic score as it works around the clock to contain the disease.

There are very few countries that have been able to contain such outbreaks without the intervention of so-called superpowers like the US and its known group of praise and worship choir in the EU.

Even though the United Nations, through its sub-organs such as WHO, chipped in, theirs appears more of a complementary gesture because by all standards and measurement, the Chinese government is on course to win the war.

In one of its latest climb down stories, the BBC reported on February 27 that “the focus of the coronavirus outbreak is shifting — from China to the rest of the world, particularly Europe. On the face of it, this seems like bad news. But there are positives too. China appears to be getting on top of the virus with the number of new cases each day reducing.”

This is a diplomatic statement from China in terms of the country’s ability in the medical industry.

The country’s decisive and efficient handling of what could have turned into a global disaster is in itself, a demonstration of its unlimited potential to the world.

The people of China and all affected communities of the world need all the necessary support, both moral and material in their efforts to stop the outbreak completely, not unbridled false narratives.

There will be ample time for trade wars between China and her detractors in the West, but certainly not now.