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+ Covid-19 is one of the greatest tremors in human history.
The acceleration of globalization, which has been increasing for decades, was suddenly stopped by the collapse of travel and tourism.
Millions of people died.
Many more millions fell back into poverty.
In the face of such a shock, it is important that we learn the right lessons.
Although some of these teachings may be particularly uncomfortable for Western readers.
No system is perfect. In the first stage when Covid-19 broke out, likely in a market in Wuhan, China stumbled because it was slow to realize the danger. In the second phase, it was the western countries, especially the USA under Donald Trump, who were sardonically happy about China's wrestling, but which now themselves experienced a sharp increase in deaths from Covid-19 - something that could have been prevented. In the third phase, as the situation in Western societies stabilized as a result of massive vaccination programs, the larger developing countries, including Brazil and India, stumbled, showing that strong state structures are still essential to protect societies.
No system or form of government can claim to be inherently superior, and yet, some countries have done better than others, particularly when it comes to saving lives. The aim of this essay is to try to work out the strengths and weaknesses of Eastern and Western societies that have come to light as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Strengths of East Asian Societies
Data doesn't lie. The difference in the number of Covid deaths per million inhabitants between Western and East Asian societies is serious. In advanced, more developed societies such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Belgium, the death toll per million is just over 2,000. In contrast, the numbers in nearly all East Asian societies, especially those societies that are directly or indirectly influenced by the Confucian ethos are significantly lower.
A superficial explanation could be that Western societies are more democratic and therefore allow more freedom than East Asian societies, which are less democratic and therefore suppress freedom.
But while China and Vietnam are ruled by communist parties, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are not.
The differences are less political than cultural and value-based.
It should be clear that the West emphasizes the rights of citizens more than their duties, while they are equally important in East Asian societies.
Even when it was scientifically proven that wearing protective masks can prevent the spread of infections and save lives, US President Donald Trump refused to wear a protective mask in public because it restricted the freedom of the individual. In most East Asian societies, people were willing to wear masks because they felt responsible to their fellow citizens. In Japan, even before Covid-19, citizens wore masks in overcrowded subways to protect others from infection.
I personally got to know the West's cultural and political reluctance to attach equal weight to rights and duties when, in 1998, when I was Singapore's ambassador to the United Nations, I witnessed the preparations for the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Under the leadership of the former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, important statesmen wanted to supplement the declaration of human rights with a "General Declaration of Human Duties". Schmidt said: “We citizens can not only exercise our rights in order to protect ourselves from the arbitrariness of others, we must also have duties and responsibilities towards those people with whom we live. There is no democracy that can survive without the double principle of freedom and responsibility. «And further:“If nations and their states, politicians and religious advocates do not learn to respect the religious, cultural and civilizational heritage of others, if people do not learn to establish and maintain the balance between the two categorical imperatives - freedom and responsibility - then it is the peace is endangered. "
At the time, I assumed that Western governments and non-governmental organizations would support a discussion about Schmidt's initiative, because freedom of expression and the principle of open debate are among the basic virtues of the West.
In fact, any discussion of Schmidt's proposal was prevented.
I've seen it all myself.
For me, this is one of the greatest historical mistakes the West has made.
There is no question that East Asian societies are influenced by the Confucian ethos: "The virtuous person is driven by responsibility, the non-virtuous person by profit." The philosopher Henry Rosemount writes: "In Confucian thought there is no 'me' in Isolation that can be viewed abstractly. "
There are also historical reasons why the Chinese, among others, give social order a higher priority than freedom of the individual. Throughout China's long and turbulent history, people have suffered more when chaos reigns. It suffered less when there was strong central rule. While many in the West believe that the Chinese Communist Party will only stay in power because the party oppresses the Chinese people, the facts show that the CCP enjoys strong support from the Chinese people. This is confirmed by a study by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School: According to this, support for the CP rose from 86 percent in 2003 to 93 percent in 2016.The Chinese government's handling of Covid-19 will undoubtedly have further boosted popular confidence. Another poll from April 2020, weeks after the Wuhan shutdown, found that of 20,000 Chinese in 31 provinces, 49.2 percent said their trust in the government had grown since the outbreak began, compared with just 3.3 percent from reported growing distrust.
The western world finds it difficult to accept that the Chinese people are ready to give up their "freedom" and live under the CP. This lack of understanding probably has to do with the fact that the different historical experiences of the Western and the Chinese peoples have produced different kinds of "freedom". In the West, the emphasis is on "freedom from," for example, "freedom from" strong authoritarian rule. In China the emphasis is on "freedom for". From the Chinese point of view, "freedom" means living happy lives with their families and friends, protected by a strong central government that maintains order.
When I first traveled to the People's Republic in 1980, the Chinese weren't allowed to decide for themselves what to study, where to live, where to work, or what to wear. Today they are allowed to. In 1980 the Chinese could not leave their country, in 2019 130 million people traveled abroad as tourists and returned voluntarily. The Chinese people have experienced the greatest increase in personal freedom in their 4,000-year history in the past 40 years. To use a brilliant German word: The Chinese people have their own "worldview". And they are happy with their worldview.
The Western worldview
Western societies also have their own worldview.
China has no desire to impose its view on the West.
It would even be happy if Western societies remained authentically Western because they have developed creative skills.
It was western scientists who developed vaccines against Covid-19 at record speed, saving millions of lives.
The whole world celebrated, especially the developing countries, which had been particularly hard hit by Covid-19.
Because the West has always portrayed itself as a benefactor, the developing world believed it would quickly share its supply of vaccines.
For many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America it was therefore a great shock to find that China shared its vaccine supplies more generously with developing countries (often even for free), even though the country itself had a much larger population to vaccinate (1.4 Billion compared to 800 million of the total population of the West). Now it was not surprising that Trump showed no generosity, it was surprising that a Democratic administration did not change course immediately.
It was an even bigger shock that Western countries made promises without keeping them.
Early on, President Biden discussed with his colleagues from Australia, India and Japan to deliver a billion vaccine doses to the nearly 700 million people in Southeast Asia.
The total number of vaccines delivered to date under this agreement is zero.
By contrast, China had delivered over 120 million vaccine doses to Southeast Asia by July 2021.
Covid-19 teaches us a great lesson
: The interests of Western countries are intertwined with the interests of all other states.
Nobody is safe from a recurrence of Covid-19 until everyone is safe.
The scientific evidence is clear: the West would be better off if all of humanity were vaccinated.
Fortunately, this won't be expensive. Vaccinating the world's population, according to the IMF, would only cost $ 50 billion. This is a no brainer in two ways. First, the G-7 have already spent $ 12 trillion helping their own businesses and citizens. The cost of 50 billion dollars to vaccinate the world's population would be negligible by comparison. Second, with the G7 shrinking from spending $ 50 billion on vaccinating the world, it is worth remembering that this was the amount China alone pledged to help the world before the US-caused 2008-09 global financial crisis to rescue. If the $ 50 billion were found, would there be enough vaccine? Naturally. Covid-19 taught us how markets work. Demand,even more so when it is financed, regulates the offer.
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Mahbubani Kishore
Has China won yet ?: China's rise to become a new superpower
Published by Plassen Verlag
Number of pages: 384
Published by Plassen Verlag
Number of pages: 384
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It is staggering that Western leaders fail to understand the main lesson of Covid-19. Humanity lives in a boat. In the past the world was divided into 193 countries, i.e. 193 boats, in this old world a virus doesn't just jump from boat to boat. Today, however, 7.8 billion people live in 193 cabins on the same boat, which also explains why the virus was able to spread so quickly. If one of the cabins catches fire, the smartest thing to do would be to get all passengers to put out the fire together first. The dumbest thing would be to start an argument about who started the fire. That is exactly what the Trump administration did. Unfortunately, the European allies did not dare to tell Donald Trump that he was acting unwise.The fact that the USA and Europe suffered from the outbreak after just a few weeks was self-inflicted. The West has not acted rationally and sensibly. He failed.
A mere $ 50 billion would be enough to eradicate the virus if the West and China came together.
Europe should urge the US and China to press the "pause button" of their geopolitical competition that threatens our already endangered world.
The whole world would send a big thank you to Europe.
It is also an excellent opportunity for Europe to take global leadership.