U.S. Media: The U.S. Should Cooperate with China for the New Coronavirus Vaccine, Don't Sit and Die

On August 14, the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic is still spreading around the world, and the development of vaccines has attracted much attention. The U.S. 'Capitol Hill' published an article on the 14th calling on the United States and China to cooperate in vaccine work. The US media believes that the United States cannot adopt an isolated approach and sit back and watch the death toll soar around the world. Instead, it should choose to cooperate with China to achieve diplomatic progress and avoid possible humanitarian disasters.

Continued sanctions, escalating rhetoric, visa bans ... It seems that you can see 'bad news' about Sino-US relations in the media every week. At the same time, the new coronavirus epidemic continues to worsen in the United States, with more than 160,000 deaths. In these two trends, China and the United States should make diplomatic progress through international cooperation while repelling the new coronavirus virus, which will benefit both countries.

New coronavirus pneumonia is a global pandemic. Neither China nor the United States have found a way to eradicate it. At the same time, Sino-US relations are still undergoing complex changes. However, despite these factors, China and the United States should cooperate to distribute the vaccine to low-income countries, or at least promise to distribute the vaccine to these countries. China has already stated that after China's new coronavirus vaccine is completed and put into use, it will become a global public product, but the United States has not yet indicated.

Why cooperate? From the perspective of the United States, cooperation in vaccine sharing can show open support for developing countries, otherwise these countries will face potential humanitarian disasters. On the contrary, if cooperation is excluded, it will further aggravate tensions between the United States and its major allies and damage the reputation of the United States around the world.

As for China, China has stated that once the vaccine is successfully developed and approved for use, it will be the first to benefit African countries. Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi expressed his willingness to conduct more in-depth exchanges with the United States in areas such as vaccine research and development. If the two countries can further cooperate, it will help both sides finding a foothold in the current 'deteriorating' diplomatic relations.

The cooperation between the two countries can take many forms, for example, through the establishment of a government working group through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to coordinate with companies to promote vaccine production and field distribution. The focus of cooperation is on the supply chain, although such cooperation will be a difficult task. A report indicated that the U.S. market alone needs at least 8,000 freighters to transport hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine, not mentioning the global market. Fortunately, charities such as the World Health Organization and the Gates Foundation have begun to establish and maintain contacts with health organizations in various countries. Large multinational pharmaceutical companies have also promised that they will supply as many vaccines as possible to everyone.

If China and the United States cooperate on vaccines, a major challenge that may be faced is the imbalance between supply and demand. This happened during the H1N1 influenza vaccination work in 2009. According to the National Institutes of Health, in the first few months, the demand for vaccines far exceeded the supply, but in the following months, the supply exceeded the demand. In light of this, international coordination between governments and private companies may help alleviate similar chaos.

In addition, the political environment is a major challenge for the cooperation vision. The U.S. government is taking a tough policy stance against China. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faces a choice : either they can choose to acquiesce to the U.S. government’s approach, adopt an isolated and nationalist approach to the distribution of the new crown vaccine, and sit back and watch the death toll soar around the world; or they can choose to shelve major power competition and appeal Cooperation between major powers.

If the United States and China cooperate now, the world will be healthier.