The crisis wrought by the outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19 is finally ending in China, while its sweep continues unabated in other countries. By March 14, a grand total of 155,210 cases of infections, with 5,811 known deaths occurred in 137 countries (including some regions, and five ocean-going cruises). Out of this group, China ranks No 1, with its total 80,824 infections, not counting Hong Kong’s 140 cases and Taiwan’s 15. The next nine countries following China in the amount of total infections are: Italy (21,157), Iran (12,799), South Korea (8,086), Spain (6,313), Germany (4,525), France (4,500), the US (2,499), Switzerland (1,375), and the United Kingdom (1,140).

The rapid increase in the numbers of these cases is astounding. By March 17, or three days later, the grand total of the infected cases jumped to a composite of 198,214, and deaths to 7,965. Among individual countries, the US registered a new high of 6,420 infections and 108 deaths.

Although China came on top among infected countries, it also held the highest rate of recovery (i.e., the number of patients who got well, totaling 65,569）accounting for 81 percent of the infected total. It beat the recovery rates of Italy (0.09 percent), Iran (8.8 percent), the US (1.9 percent), South Korea (8.8 percent), Japan (15 percent), and the UK (16 percent), among others.

Chinese readers, exposed to these flamboyant pronouncements by Trump, both about his pandemic claim and about the superiority of the American political system, may want to copy his use of the word “hoax” as a response

The death rate, however, followed a different pattern. China’s 3.2 percent death rate was higher, for example, than that of the US (2.2 percent), the UK (1.8 percent) and South Korea (0.8 percent). In fact, out of the 137 countries tallied above, as many as 90 had zero death rates (0 percent). They included: Russia, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Peru, South Africa, etc. Many of these also had zero recovery rates.

I might add an incidental discovery of how the mainland’s impressive recovery rate was greeted in Taiwan. Some of the island’s major media outlets, as is well-known, habitually echoed the ruling party DPP’s (Democratic Progressive Party) separatist inclinations which reneged on the notion of belonging to “One China” with the mainland. But, surprisingly, in this setting, these media outlets chose not to adulterate reporting on the mainland’s accomplishments in its efforts to contain the coronavirus rampage. As a result of their positive reports on how the mainland’s medical personnel and public collaborated in bringing the crisis under control, readers in Taiwan likewise evinced a positive response. As one overseas Chinese observer put it, “when the chips are down, people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits find a common concern like this one, regardless of their political views.”

Why, as the tale goes in America, was the coronavirus said to have originated in China — and why from Wuhan of all places — remains a myth. Both the US and China blamed each other for its origin. The American version was that the epidemic began in Wuhan because some locals had eaten bats bought from a local wholesale fish market. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other officials insisted on calling it “Wuhan Virus”. President Donald Trump simply spoke of it as the “Chinese virus.”

The US media reported that the Chinese enjoyed rumors that the virus was a weapon developed by the American military and designed to knock down China as an increasingly threatening rival.

Global Research, an independent electronic journal, insisted that the virus came from an American source, as it posted a report on March 11 titled “COVID-19: Further evidence that the virus originated in the US”.

A sensible person would imagine that the crisis would provide an occasion for collaboration between nations in a common fight against the virus onslaught. But, alas, politicians in the US saw an opportunity, instead, for selling the alleged superiority of the American political system, accentuating its openness and freedom of reporting. The underscoring motive was, first, to conceal the American unpreparedness in responding to the COVID-19 challenge. A US newspaper lamented, Americans had squandered away the precious two weeks’ time provided by the Chinese experience to contain the virus. Second, the ultimate motive was to insinuate an attack on China’s political system for its alleged “obfuscation and disinformation” arising from its “closed society” and “autocratic governance,” contrary to America’s open and free society.

In fact, the real story (the truth) is that the freedom flaunted by the American side was cheapened by its abuse even by its most fervent advocate. As The Economist was quick to point out, Trump, who likes playing politics, deliberately downplayed the seriousness of the virus as a disruptive force to people’s lives and the economy. It noted Trump’s “insistence that the virus hysteria was being amped up by his political enemies”. Precious time was lost while Trump showed greater interest in combating what he called the Chinese campaign to spread conspiracy theories and propaganda. Hence, the relentless spread of the epidemic to America caught its people flatfooted, not even having enough masks or test kits in place.

Just compare Trump’s free-wheeling equivocations, a few weeks apart. During a Jan 22 interview on CNBC, he claimed the virus was “totally under control”. Then on Feb 28, he said the Democrats were using the coronavirus outbreak as a “hoax” to damage him and his administration. Even if this were true, how would it substantiate his claim that the American political system was superior to China’s?

Finally, in a White House press briefing on March 17, Trump insisted that he had long believed that the coronavirus crisis now gripping America was a pandemic, “long before it was called a pandemic” by the World Health Organization.

Chinese readers, exposed to these flamboyant pronouncements by Trump, both about his pandemic claim and about the superiority of the American political system, may want to copy his use of the word “hoax” as a response.

The author, Professor of Politics & International Law at New York University, is author and editor of 25 books, including: An Anatomy of Sino-Japanese disputes & U.S. Involvement: History and International Law, and The Xi Jinping Era: His Comprehensive Strategy Toward the China Dream, (August 2015). His latest book The South China Sea Disputes and the US-China Contest: International Law & Geopolitics was published in 2018.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.