The new virus that emerged in Wuhan exposed the fragility of global interdependence.
Based on an article by Matake Kamiya, this essay examines the reality that the world economy and human exchange had become deeply dependent on China, and the danger of China continuing to pursue narrow national interests and propaganda even in a time of global crisis.

April 9, 2020
The new virus that emerged in Wuhan, China, one of the central points of global interdependence, has taken tens of thousands of lives and forced billions of people to remain confined to their homes.
The following is from an article by Matake Kamiya, professor at the National Defense Academy of Japan, published today in the “Seiron” column of the Sankei Shimbun under the title “Cooperate with the World While Keeping Reality in View.”
The world now seems to be completely absorbed by the problem of the new coronavirus.
But the reality of international politics itself has not changed.
From the standpoint of an international politics scholar, what this turmoil has thrust before us is the difficulty of international cooperation in managing relations of interdependence.
Since the latter half of the twentieth century, the world has seen a dramatic expansion of international interdependence as a result of technological progress centered on transportation, logistics, information, and communications.
This has promoted the expansion and development of the international economy.
At the same time, however, it has brought to the world vulnerabilities that did not exist in the past.
The present virus disaster has forced us to realize this.
Countries all over the world have stopped the flow of people as if they were closing themselves off from the world.
The flow of goods has also begun to stagnate.
Stock prices around the world have plunged.
Faced with a situation that no one could have imagined at the beginning of the year, we have come to realize just how much the ordinary lives we had taken for granted were actually based upon global interdependence.
It has also become clear once again that the economies of Japan and the world, whether we like it or not, can no longer function without interdependence with China.
Today, China plays the role of “the factory of the world.”
In 2019, its per capita GDP surpassed 10,000 dollars, and its importance as “the market of the world” was also increasing.
The sharp slowdown of the Chinese economy, and the stagnation of economic relations between China and other countries, have dealt a severe blow to the world economy.
Yet even more serious is the expansion of human damage.
The new virus that emerged in Wuhan, China, one of the central points of global interdependence, rapidly spread across the world on the waves of cross-border human movement.
It has taken tens of thousands of lives and forced billions of people to remain confined to their homes.
Countries have imposed entry restrictions as border-control measures.
But this has inflicted a further blow on international interdependence.
Until only recently, Washington and Paris were places to which one could even make a one-night, three-day whirlwind business trip.
How distant they have now become.
What is still more serious is that, even in such an emergency, there are countries that have not corrected their foreign posture based on selfish national interests.
The words and actions of China, in particular, cannot be overlooked.
China’s posture toward Japan does not appear to have changed much even after the outbreak of this turmoil.
Chinese government vessels continue to intrude into the territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands.
China’s selfish desire to change the status quo of the international order by force continues to be directed at Japan.
On March 26, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also admitted that a professor at Hokkaido University of Education, a Chinese national who has continued his research in Japan since the mid-1980s, had been detained by the Chinese authorities for more than ten months on suspicion of spying.
This followed the detention last September by the Chinese authorities of a Hokkaido University professor specializing in China.
China seems to be directing its sharp power toward Japan as well.
It appears to be continuing to test how seriously Japan intends to defend liberal values, including freedom of speech.
Japan must not be dragged along by China.
At the time this problem first emerged, China was conspicuous for concealing information and delaying its initial response.
There was little sign of an attitude of confronting the problem in cooperation with the international community.
More recently, China has remained silent about its responsibility for failing to respond properly at an early stage and allowing the situation to become a pandemic.
Instead, it has strengthened only its propaganda about its domestic success in countermeasures and its contributions to the world.
Nor is it forward-looking about identifying the source of the outbreak.
What lies there is, after all, the consideration of narrow and selfish national interests.
If countries are dragged along by such a state and rush into self-centered nationalism, the development of therapeutic drugs will be delayed.
An early end to the pandemic will not be possible.
The stagnation of the world economy will also be prolonged.
Yet it is also extremely dangerous to desire international cooperation so much that one averts one’s eyes from the existence of countries that act on the basis of narrow national interests.
In international politics, it has long been considered essential to pursue ideals as far as possible while never turning away from reality.
What is required of us now is precisely such an attitude.