Zheng Yongnian column
When the 2019 coronary virus disease spreads from Wuhan to various provinces in China and began to spread to other parts of the world, China regarded the virus as an enemy.Style management has established Liangshan Hospital in just a few days, with unprecedented measures.
At the same time, Western media condemned China in unison. In addition to judging China by human rights, democracy, freedom of information, more people believe that crown disease is leading to China's political changes.The turning point, the crown disease is also evolving into the crisis of the CCP, becoming a turning point for its disintegration.
Now, the national national system of anti -epidemic has finally seen phased results.After paying a huge price, the Chinese crown disease epidemic was basically controlled. While continuing to care about the spread of the virus at all levels, it mentioned the highest agenda to restore economic activities.
The governments and society of those other countries who are influenced by the epidemic are now exhausted.In more and more countries, the public criticism sounds.Complaining seems to be the nature of the media and the people.Just as the Chinese people have opinions on the government, Japan, South Korea, Iran, the United States, Italy, etc., who are threatened by the epidemic, people will not complain about the government, and even have a considerable scale of social fear.
The Chinese government has a strong ability to control, making the panic caused by the epidemic, and has evolved into a political crisis generally considered by Western critics.The problem now is that Western countries have no ability to control the epidemic?Will the epidemic evolve into a global political crisis?
Raising such a problem is not alarmist.If people can leave the ideological colored glasses and objectively look at the problem, it is not difficult to find that all countries are facing the same nature of the same nature regardless of the political system, equally severe challenges.In fact, the Western views that criticize China can also be used to criticize the problems and challenges faced by the West now.To put it bluntly, if you look at it with ideology and political stance, whether it is your own problem or the problem of other countries, you can only deceive yourself.
Common issues facing political governance worldwide
What are the common problems faced by countries worldwide?People can be discussed at least in the following aspects.
First, is there a effective government and a strong leadership group?At the time of crisis, society's confidence has become extremely important.As far as the coronary virus is concerned, to a large extent, the social panic caused by the epidemic is more stressful than the epidemic itself.Social panic is inevitable. All countries affected by the epidemic have appeared to snap up the wave of buying, but the degree is to varying degrees.The existence of an effective government and a strong leadership is essential for reducing or even curbing social panic. This is not only related to the trust of the government, but also whether the government has the ability to mobilize resources to effectively resist.
Whether it is Japan, Italy, or the United States, this is the most worried about this.For many years, the Western democratic system and free capitalist system established since the Second World War have been questioned and challenged. Strong people's political rise and the rise of populism, and internal political disputes have continued to weaken the effectiveness of the government.In this case, it is the most worried about the elites and the people of various countries to deal with the epidemic.
Shinzo Abe is the longest prime minister in ruling in Japan, but the crown disease has made him facing the most severe challenge since ruling.U.S. President Trump delivered a national television speech on the crown disease, but his attitude towards virus diffusion has almost faced the unanimous criticism and attacks of American media and the public.So far, it seems that there is no government and leadership collective that people can trust.
Secondly, is it enough to have enough property to cope with the epidemic?Regardless of the political system, regardless of the level of economic development, as soon as the crown disease spreads, the resource shortage occurs.The United States, Italy, Japan, and South Korea are all developed countries and are regarded as high -quality public health systems. Some countries are usually examples of learning in other countries.
However, the epidemic crisis is coming, and no country is prepared, all of which have fallen into the dilemma of a comprehensive material shortage. Even simple masks, protective clothing and hand -sanitizer daily necessities are not enough.insufficient.The situation of not developed countries, such as Iran, is even more severe, so that a large number of criminals have to be temporarily released to prevent the spread of the epidemic.Some countries have given up virus testing because they do not have enough resources.
Third, the institutional contradiction between the central and local governments.Central local relations are a major issue facing China.Early local officials concealed the situation of the epidemic, which was obviously related to the central relationship.This problem also appears in all other countries (except Singapore, which has only a first -level government).The United States is a federal system. In the field of public health, the federal government has power, but because the Trump administration is generally regarded as inaction, the state governments have made their own own and announced that they have entered an emergency.
In Italy, the central government suddenly announced the blockade of some areas, and then announced the blockbuster of the country. However, the local area was not ready and seemed to be busy. I didn't know how to implement the central government's policies.The Abe government amended the law to give Prime Minister's power to the state of emergency state. Once the Prime Minister has this power, Japanese local autonomy will be greatly affected. The actions of the prime minister's power expansion have led to local and society.All these have chaos in the central and local relations of all these countries, and the normal operation system is extremely fragile in the face of the crisis.
Limitation of professionals
Fourth, do professional institutions have sufficient authority and power?In terms of epidemics, professional institutions here mainly refer to epidemic control experts and doctors.In the field of medical and public health, the power of knowledge is self -evident. Whether it is the virus itself and the infectious judgment or how to effectively curb the virus, almost all links involve very special knowledge. These knowledge is other groups.(Including politicians) that is not available.Because of this, professional institutions and professionals have a high degree of social trust, and society's trust in them is far higher than their trust in politicians.Since the occurrence and spread of coronal virus, this group has played a very important role in all aspects.
But this field is also facing two major problems.One is the consensus between professionals.On the problem of virus, from the source and generation of the virus to the evolution and spread of the virus, even if the knowledge of professionals has a long process, there are not many consensus between professionals in this process.In the intellectual world, this is a very normal phenomenon, because the knowledge body is diverse and open.However, in the field of epidemic, the diversity of this view and judgment will undoubtedly have a great impact on society.If there are divergent opinions, the public will not know who to listen to.
The second is also more important. It is a serious conflict between professional knowledge and serious politics.The consideration of things between professionals and politicians is very different.For example, professionals emphasize the information of the epidemic in time and open and transparent ways, so that the public will have a sense of security. Politicians are not. They either need to consider the impact of the epidemic on their own power or other factors (that is, the so -called overall situation)EssenceThis makes professional institutions and professionals conflict with politicians.
This is the contradiction between the American Disease Control and Prevention Center (CDC) and the president.The U.S. administrative department stipulates that hospitals and doctors shall not announce information about the epidemic at will, and all information must be concentrated in the federal government to announce.When the British authorities announced not to update the epidemic data every day, but the society was uproar when it was updated once a week.People originally thought that all these things would only happen in China's authoritarian system, but found that this is the case.Although professional institutions and political institutions can find reasons that are conducive to themselves, this will undoubtedly harm the authority and power of professional institutions and personnel.
Fifth, what kind of power can the media exert?In the West, the media has always taken the truth of reporting and is regarded as a very independent power.Indeed, free media regards politicians regardless of politiciansBoth things and the people can have a huge impact.Wuhan's early concealment of the epidemic was regarded as the result of no freedom of speech and freedom of information.During the epidemic period, is Western media completely freedom of speech?In fact, once the administrative authority stipulates that the epidemic information should be concentrated (such as the United States), it is difficult for the media to enjoy the freedom of speech as usual.
This is not because the media has lost freedom of speech, but because the media lacks the source of news.Many governments treat the crown disease like war, and such a government has obtained a special period of power to restrict the freedom of the media.Although people will question this special power of the government, at this time, the public is willing to temporarily abandon some of their rights to empower the government.This is the case today.In the United States, the media and the administrative authorities (presidents) staged a big drama called the other party to create fake news and accusations with each other.
Sixth, what role does social power play?The spread of crown disease has made the virus the whole society, and the whole government's resistance to the whole government is far from enough. Only the anti -epidemic in the whole society will succeed.In other words, what role the social power plays is vital to whether it is successful to fight against immunity.
Negative participation and active participation
The role of society is mainly manifested in two aspects. On the one hand, it is negative participation, and on the other hand, active participation.Negative participation refers to whether society cooperates with resistance.Does society cooperate?The answer to this question is actually not clear.Regardless of which country, people always target the government, but forgetting whether society cooperates with the government to resist disease is the prerequisite for the government to resist.The situation in South Korea fully illustrates this. Most of the cases come from large -scale religious activities.Even in Singapore, a society, which is regarded as an effective management and control, many cases come from group activities.
The values held by a society affect whether society is coordinated.In Asia, both Confucian culture or authoritarian countries, members of society often have a realistic attitude. They can easily make a choice between security and freedom, that is, choosing safe rather than freedom.For them, the truth is simple, there is no safety, where is the freedom?But in a democratic country, it is not so easy to choose a choice between freedom and security.People must be safe and free.
The reality is that the two are not always available at the same time.In Italy, people see that on the one hand, the government is sealed by the government, and on the other hand, the city is faked in the same shape. The people do not wear masks and live as usual.For those who are deeply afraid of political power, they would rather choose to die alone at home or not want to see the appearance of a highly centralized government.
Some social and cultural factors also prevent effective resistance from some countries.For example, different cultures have different understanding of wearing masks.In Asia (especially in Japan), wearing a mask often means respect for others and reassured others; but in the West, people wearing masks are often regarded as patients, so they are often discriminated against by people.
Social active participation has been expressed in China.Although China's governance system did not fully consider the participation of social forces, during this anti -epidemic process, various social groups showed their own strength.It is usually regarded as the West (including Japan), which has a strong social force. Until now, I haven't seen how society organizes to fight against the epidemic.This may be related to western people regarding diseases as private affairs.In many countries, most people see the state of panic in society.
The crown disease has rapidly spread to more than 100 countries and regions.All the factors discussed here are affecting the effectiveness of the methods and methods of the epidemic in various countries.Although all countries are facing all these problems, because the political systems, ideology, culture, values, lifestyle, etc. of various countries, people do not have a unified and effective anti -epidemic mode to imitate and refer to it.
If you use the popular network terms under the eyes, it is that people's homework cannot be copied by themselves.Therefore, although Chinese methods are effective in China, Singapore's method is effective in Singapore, but no country can copy the model of moving China and copy the Singapore model.In the end, all countries must find an effective mode suitable for their own society.
All countries are running against time.The fast and crazy spread of virus not only threatens the lives of the people, but also threatens the normal economic life of various society.In the country, the country is extremely negatively affected by economic activities (internal or international).The necessary extreme measures (such as the city, such as the city, the city, the borders, etc.) took the necessary extreme measures (such as the city, such as the city, and the borders, etc., which made the internal and external economic activities suspended, the stock markets of various countries shocked, and the economic crisis was immediately developed.
If the epidemic cannot be controlled in a short time, if the epidemic continues to lead to a global economic crisis, we are not far from a global political crisis.
Regardless of whether people like or not, the virus is part of human globalization.This also determines that no country and a government can be alone; to defeat the spread of the virus, it requires the cooperation between the country, rather than laughing at each other, and demonize each other.
The author is the National University of Singapore
Professor of East Asia Research Institute
The article only represents personal point of view
