The Sankei Shimbun reported how China, amid the novel coronavirus crisis, has advanced its “Health Silk Road” through exports of medical supplies and dispatches of expert teams, attempting to display the superiority of its Communist Party dictatorship. Although China’s initial concealment of information helped spread the infection worldwide, it is using medical diplomacy to promote the supposed superiority of its system. This essay examines China’s strategy as a medical version of the Belt and Road Initiative and the democratic counteroffensive seen in Taiwan and Germany.

May 9, 2020
China has become a “deformed great power,” riding the wave of globalization while maintaining Communist Party dictatorship and producing the world’s second-largest gross domestic product, GDP.

The Sankei Shimbun is now the most decent newspaper not only in Japan, but in the world.
Those who subscribe to it must have read this morning’s Sankei Shimbun and keenly realized the correctness of my evaluation.
The emphases within the text, apart from the headline, are mine.

China Rushes into “Medical Diplomacy.”
Displaying the Superiority of Authoritarianism.

21.1 billion masks, 109 million protective suits, 32.94 million goggles, 110,000 patient monitors, and 9.29 million infrared thermometers.
These are the quantities of medical supplies China exported as measures against the novel coronavirus during the less than two months from March 1 to April 25.
A senior official of China’s General Administration of Customs disclosed this at a press conference.

The Health Silk Road.

China calls it the “Health Silk Road” initiative.
It is the medical version of the gigantic economic-zone initiative, the “Belt and Road,” that China has long been advancing.
Its aim is well expressed in the words emphasized by President Xi Jinping at a meeting on April 27.
“The reason our country was able to strongly advance the prevention and control of infection is that the leadership of the Communist Party and the superiority of the socialist system played an incomparable role.”
At the initial stage of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China became obsessed with information control, failed in its initial response, and spread the infection to the world.
It is not only trying to evade criticism from foreign countries.
It is also trying to proclaim the “superiority of its system” with an eye toward the world order after coronavirus.

China has become a “deformed great power,” riding the wave of globalization while maintaining Communist Party dictatorship and producing the world’s second-largest gross domestic product, GDP.
Its strategy of aiming for hegemony through the Belt and Road, under the names of support and cooperation, has not changed at all even while the world is in the coronavirus crisis.

Supplies to 150 Countries and Organizations.

As soon as the domestic peak of the epidemic passed in March, China moved into medical diplomacy.
According to China’s Foreign Ministry, by April 22 the recipients of medical supplies numbered more than 150 countries and international organizations.
According to the electronic edition of China’s Economic Daily, by May 6 China had dispatched medical expert teams to 19 countries.

In the “competition of systems” that China has in mind, it is not true that dictatorship or authoritarianism is superior to democracy.
It is true that the United States, Italy, Britain, and others failed to contain the coronavirus and suffered enormous sacrifices.
But among the top ten countries in number of infections are also authoritarian Russia and Iran.

Iran’s leadership is suspected of having concealed early patient information and allowing the infection to spread.
This was in order to hold a large-scale celebratory parade on the February 11 anniversary of the revolution.
In Iran and Russia, it has even been pointed out that dissatisfaction with long-term authoritarian rule may be amplified by the coronavirus crisis and burst open.

“Today, billions of people wash their hands not because they fear the soap police, but because they understand the facts.”

Yuval Noah Harari, the well-known Israeli historian, wrote this in a contribution to the British newspaper Financial Times.
People wash their hands with soap not because they are forced to, but because they have knowledge about viruses and bacteria.
Even in a public-health battle such as coronavirus, what matters is “trust” in science and public authority.

Democracy Strikes Back.

For Japan, which believes in freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, Taiwan and Germany are probably useful references in this sense.
Taiwan, which has been shut out of the World Health Organization, WHO, under pressure from China, succeeded in taking preventive action ahead of time.
On January 23, Taiwan effectively suspended the movement of people to and from China, and early on thoroughly enforced 14-day quarantine for people returning from overseas, infected persons, and close contacts.
Although it did not impose general restrictions on going out, it kept the number of deaths to six as of May 6.

Germany established a large-scale testing system and conducted isolation of infected people and tracking of infection routes.
Its fatality rate is far lower than those of Italy and France.
German Chancellor Merkel had announced that she would retire at the expiration of her term in the autumn of 2021, and it had been pointed out that she was becoming a lame duck.
Yet she appealed sincerely and scientifically for cooperation with various restrictions, and Merkel’s approval rating recovered to more than 60 percent.

There are likely to be countries that are drawn by the magnetic force of the “Health Silk Road” and accelerate their approach to China.
Among the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, there are differences in how they keep their distance from the United States and China, but local diplomatic sources say of China’s medical diplomacy that it is
“generally viewed favorably.”
A South African diplomatic expert also told German media:
“African countries do not have many options.”

However, just as the Belt and Road has lost trust by trapping small countries in debt, China’s medical diplomacy is also stumbling.
In European countries such as Spain and the Netherlands, defective Chinese-made medical products have been found one after another, becoming a problem.
Criticism is growing against the “propaganda” carried out by Chinese ambassadors and others.

The United States, which should be the leader of the democratic camp, has fiercely criticized the current situation in which China is exerting influence in the WHO, and has begun to raise the signal fire for a counteroffensive.

Beijing, Shohei Mitsuka.
Singapore, Hiroshi Mori.
Cairo, Kosei Sato.
Foreign News Department, Hideo Miyashita.