Leading "China hands" in the United States have called for increased cooperation between their country and China to work toward ending the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The contrast between how the novel coronavirus crisis has been handled in China and the US is not one of ideologies "but between capacity, leadership and citizens' trust in government", said Chas W. Freeman, chief interpreter for US president Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972.
Chas W. Freeman
Freeman made the remark during the online Harvard China Forum on May 7. He said that the failings of politics and policies, together with populism, "which disrespects expertise and corrodes the confidence of the government", partly explain the response to the pandemic in the US.
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"Americans prefer to spend tax dollars on efforts in engineering foreign regime change rather than to build and sustain domestic human and physical infrastructure," Freeman said. He said that results in "serious US incapacity to respond to crises like the coronavirus pandemic".
Nearly 1.4 million people in the US have been infected with the coronavirus, with more than 84,000 deaths, according to the count by Johns Hopkins University on Wednesday. Many health experts have broken with the administration on a number of issues related to the country's response to the pandemic.
William Kirby, chairman of the Harvard China Fund, said "the US lost six weeks of preparation" while China locked down.
Chas W. Freeman, chief interpreter for US president Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972, said that US and Chinese people need to "set aside the ideological differences to be able to tackle the challenges before us", and the only way to meet those challenges "is subduing our emotions and focusing on our respective national interests"
Ezra Vogel, former director of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, said that despite much negative media coverage in the US on China, "we're getting more ... masks and other equipment coming in from China right now to help us deal with the coronavirus. We're getting a lot of equipment, and a lot of little groups in China are making efforts to send their American friends equipment".
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The panelists expressed concern that a lack of collaboration with China could worsen the pandemic in the US.
Stephen Orlins, president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, said: "It seems to me that we have already paid an enormous cost for the belief that scientific cooperation with China is inappropriate in the world of strategic competition." He added that the situation restricted the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's communication and collaboration with China and "paved the way for this pandemic in the US".
Freeman said that the decoupling "came from a very small group of people, associated with the administration. The American public was very positive about the relationship with China despite the differences between their societies".
He said that US and Chinese people need to "set aside the ideological differences to be able to tackle the challenges before us", and the only way to meet those challenges "is subduing our emotions and focusing on our respective national interests". He said that it is necessary that Americans understand that collaborating with China is not a one-way street.
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"It's not the US giving things to China. We both gain, and China has things to give to the United States in science and technology. And we need to find some specific examples and bring home to people what the benefits of our solid relationship are," he said.
"We'll only get to the promised land if each and every one of you fights to strengthen the US-China relationship, fights to combat the lies, distortions and untruths, fights to make sure we stay on the right path," said Orlins.
Vogel said that Americans "who have a reasonable point of view about the future of our country have a responsibility... to reach out, to slow down the crazy insisting of some of the politicians who are just trying to raise their own situations".
"It's leading to disaster for both countries. We really need to cooperate," he said.
Yi Zong in Washington and agencies contributed to this story.
