Editor's Note: Mohsan Ismandar is the director of the Office of the Syrian Plan and International Cooperation Agency, and a trainee of the ninth China-Arab Reform and Development Research Center. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
China has been attracting great attention as an important hub of the global supply chain, the largest industrialized country in the world and because of the epidemiological situation of COVID-19. And, just as China has triumphed over external conspiracies, backwardness and poverty by achieving the highest rates of development in the world, today it also succeeds in defeating an enemy of a different nature.
Victory has manifested itself on several levels and has several meanings. The leader, the army, the government and the people are being united with one heart. This indicates the cultural and developmental depth of China and its modernity in which crisis management is one of the first priorities of the state. Chinese President Xi Jinping has been directly and closely supervising all measures taken against the virus. A global diplomatic campaign was launched to ensure international cooperation in this field.
There also has been a wide participation by all Chinese nationals, including the residents, the army, volunteers and doctors, to support government measures to combat the virus. The measures taken by the government are characterized by accuracy, inclusiveness and creativity – for example, the implementation of the largest quarantine operation in the city of Wuhan, building new hospitals within days and adopting a remote work system through the use of online learning and digital technologies.
At the international level, the Chinese government has been able to explain the reality of the situation and of what is happening in China. By disclosure and being transparent, some attempts to isolate China under the pretext of the epidemic were foiled. The World Health Organization has publicly praised China's measures on multiple occasions. It has affirmed that China is keen to protect its people and the people of the world from this virus.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank both supported the Chinese government in its financial and monetary measures to combat the virus and expressed their confidence in China's economic flexibility. International support was clear to China, as many friendly countries provided great moral support, even financially, through medical aid. This was an expression of a concrete international effort to cooperate and coordinate to combat the virus.
On the economic level, the strong Chinese economy has contributed to the encirclement and control of the virus, as demonstrated by the flexibility of Chinese industrial companies and their financial and monetary institutions. They are providing all forms of support, whether in terms of increasing the production quantities of materials needed by the control or food security operations, or the technological capacity that gives access to e-commerce. The tax incentives provided by the Chinese government to companies also eased pressure, and soft loans contributed to improving the operating conditions of these companies.
If there is a slowdown in the work of some companies in certain sectors such as tourism, it will be temporary and will be short. It will resume growth at a high rate in light of the thirst for these products, whether from domestic consumers or from importers abroad who are accustomed to the competitive quality and price of Chinese products. As for the inflation that occurred as a result of the increased demand for some products, it is temporary due to the crisis, and price indicators will return to normal.
China can see through the attempts to politicize the virus and benefit from the temporary economic downturn. They will not work.
Finally, the crisis was a test of the solidity and strength of the will of the great Chinese people, a test of the level of economic and social development, the level of modernity reached by Chinese civilization, and a test of the future of China. China has not only bought the world time to prepare for the impact of the virus, it will be protecting the world along with its friends in this fight.
