The spread of coronary virus diseases in 2019 and the huge differences with the achievements of governments' anti -epidemic results have triggered a new wave of Chinese and Western systems.
First, the system of criticism and accusing China in Western media believes that it is China's authoritarian system, which has caused local governments to conceal the virus information, which leads to a large -scale diffusion later.The incident will eventually lead to the collapse of the CCP.When China successfully and effectively controls the spread of the virus, prevent the virus from returning again, at the same time not only restore the economy, but also provides medical assistance items to countries around the world. It is the turn of Chinese media to criticize and accuse the Western system.
Surprisingly, like Western media, the Chinese media also emphasized the role of the system and believes that the western government's inadequate resistance is because of the Western democratic system; the Chinese government's successful resistance is because of China's national system.
Western media and politicians have simplified the Chinese and Western systems into the division of democracy and autocracy; Chinese media basically accepted this distinction, namely Western democracy and Chinese national system.
Over the years, when explaining the different methods of democracy and authoritarian response to disasters, I believe that Western democratic and superior people often quote the famous saying of economist Amatia Middot; AMartya Sen: In human history, there is no famineIt occurs in a democratic country that runs normally.Mori believes that because the democratic government must face voters, they have a strong willingness to prevent disasters.Mori is to explain the Great Famine in the Mao Zedong era and believe that such a big famine will not occur under the democratic system.If there was a free circulation of information in China at that time, the famine would not be developed to what people saw later.
It should be pointed out that what Mori proposed was just a hypothesis.China's famine has a deeper background. It is not just as simple as the freedom of remarks. The non -circulation of information is just a way to lead to the great famine.And if the assumptions of Mori extend to the plague incident in history, it is even more convincing.Spanish flu, which began in 1918, spread between various democratic countries in the West. How should you explain?In order to occupy an advantage in military, Western war countries carried out strict information control and concealed influenza information, resulting in three laps on the earth.
The coronary virus broke out from Wuhan this time. Because people have no knowledge of the neo -virus, the local governments caught off guard.But once the seriousness of the virus is recognized, China's entire country mobilizes.Wuhan (Hubei) Fengcheng (Feng Province) provides extremely valuable time for other countries.Western countries had enough time to prepare to deal with measures, but wasted in vain.This is difficult to explain with the Chinese concealment information that the West has repeatedly adhered to; on the contrary, the laziness of democracy, the arrogance of politicians, and the ignorance based on racism (believe that the virus only is valid for Asians) has played a role.
In the process of virus diffusion, the West did not adhere to the principle of freedom of speech.Captain Crozer, the US Navy Roseford, was fired because of the public aircraft carrier infected with virus infection.This reminds me of the behavior of democratic countries in 1918.What is particularly unacceptable is that after the World Health Organization announced an emergency, many Western countries still do not act.
As Francis Fukuyama recently wrote that such a bad anti -epidemic behavior in the United States cannot be explained with the concept of Western democratic system; the Chinese government's effective resistance operation can not be used in the West, or ChinaThe national system itself is explained.Simply divide the political systems of various countries into a system of democracy and authoritarian / national system, which will inevitably move towards politics and ideology, leading to dual standards, and cannot see the truth of things.
The conclusion of ideological interpretation is often ridiculous.For example, China adopts the means of sealed the city and restricts the travel of the people, which is against human rights in the West; and the West does this for the needs of public interests.Western people do not follow the government's regulations to travel freely, which is the value of western people to defend democracy and freedom.
Western criticism of China's anti -epidemic mode
This ideology is also manifested in the West's understanding of the way of resistance in Asian society.Many western media envy the way of resistance in Asian society.Surprisingly, Western media, as always, criticized China as always, but praised South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.If you understand the anti -epidemic model of China and other East Asian society, it is not difficult to find that there are actually many things in common between these society.
Most of these society use invasive electronic monitoring tracking, restricting people's travel, active organizational testing, and implementation of strict isolation. However, in the West, if these methods are used in China, it is the institutional performance of China.Society is the manifestation of the effectiveness of governance.The Chinese government earlier was regarded as a concentration camp by Western media to alleviate the pressure on regular hospitals.However, many Western governments later learned to China and set up a square cabin hospital.
The system of a country must have an impact on the government's resistance, but it is not as simple as democratic and authoritarian.In the process of resistance, the correlation between the system and the government's resistance was manifested in all aspects, including the concentration of the central (federal) government, government scale, central local relations, and local government responsibilities.But all these system factors are not so related to the basic system of a country, it is better to be related to the governance system of a country.
As far as the system is concerned, there are several points that people must know.First, the system of each country is developed according to its own civilization, culture and national conditions, and is open to history. It advances to the times at different stages to cope with changes.If a system cannot meet the needs of the times, it will be eliminated ruthlessly.Therefore, as the death of any system has its reasons, there is a reason for the existence of any system.
Second, the system itself variable and flexible.No system exists and operates as democratic or authoritarian.Any system has its own democracy and its dictatorship.When dealing with crisis, the centralized system can turn to decentralization, and the system of decentralization can be turned to collective power.In the West criticized the centralization of the Chinese system, in order to resist the disease, not only the democracy of the developing countries, but also the old British and American democracy, which turned to the government's centralized power.
Historically, fascism and Nazi are also the products of democracy.When the crisis comes, what is more dangerous than the crisis itself is the panic caused by the crisis.The authoritarian government in the West has the ability to control the panic of society.The democratic government mentioned in the West lacks this ability because of the importance of individual values.Under the conditions of social panic, the shift from democracy to totalitarianism is just a wall.
Third, the subjective initiative of the institutional operator.The system is operated by people. The same system is operated by different people, and the effect is very different.In a democratic country, people cannot see the phenomenon of Mori, that is, the democratic government must face voters, and they have a strong willingness to prevent disasters; on the contrary, the phenomenon of democratic countries often use crisis to strengthen themselvesPower, or the power of the party you represent, instead of going all out to resist.
In Hungary, the democratic government has always shocked since the transformation, and has never been consolidated.Now the crown disease has enabled the people to empower the right government. The Prime Minister Olban can already implement political order and can arrest the reporters who criticize him.The Israeli Prime Minister Neyhuro faced the end of shame after many years, but the crown disease caused him to breathe.He has ordered most courts to close and postpone his corruption trial.After India has blocked the country, Prime Minister Modi's Indian nationalist government promulgated laws to make it easier for Indians to occupy the majority of Muslims and Kashmir regions to become permanent residents.
Britain is an old -fashioned democratic country, but the crown disease epidemic has given government ministers to arrest the people and close the border.The United States is a lighthouse for freedom and democracy, but President Trump has only had many powers that can only have during the war.
Even if the West has always been proud of the freedom of remarks, in the era of populism rise, it has appeared seriously.question.The so -called freedom of speech is based on the freedom of speech.However, under the dominance of populism, people have a specific political position and ideology about anything. Once people look at problems with political stance and ideology, there is no fact, only after the facts and the truth.
If people have different views on the virus methods, they can still be understood, but if people have basic issues such as whether the virus itself exists, is serious, is important for economy, or is important in life, they have political and ideological.What is the purpose of this freedom of speech?In the West, the views of the basic issues of extreme rights and extreme left parties are completely different, which not only leads to social confusion, but also leads to the government's resistance.The remarks between Trump and some politicians even surprised ordinary Americans: Why does democracy produce such politicians?
In addition to these institutional factors that affect government governance capabilities, cultural and social factors that affect the resistance of the Western government.It is assumed that the democratic government is more willing to govern the crisis, which does not mean that the government has more governance.The main affected government governance capabilities are the relationship between government and society, the government and the economy.
How can East Asian society be able to implement the anti -epidemic policy
In East Asian society, the government can effectively control the spread of crown disease. One of the main factor is the cooperation of the people.It is not difficult for the people to make a choice between freedom and life, because there is no life, how can there be freedom.In traditional culture, the people of East Asian society generally trust the government.The combination of these two can effectively implement the government's epidemic prevention and anti -epidemic policies in East Asian society.
The situation in the West is completely different.In East Asia, few people argue whether they should wear masks, because wearing a mask is not only self -protection, but also expressed respect for others.Only in the absence of a mask, some governments will consider what situations need to wear masks and problems that do not need to wear.But in modern Western culture, wearing a mask means getting sick, and people wearing masks are often discriminated against.In a simple thing to wear masks, Western countries have been arguing, and the epidemic has become so serious. People are still arguing about the mask.
The impact of the sealing city in East Asian society and western society on personal behavior is even more important.In East Asia, people generally accept the guidance of the government. Whether they are voluntary or unwilling, few people go against policies.But in the West, the concept of Fengcheng rarely affects personal behavior. Many people still live as usual, as if nothing happened.
More importantly, the relationship between the government and the economy.Economic ability is the core ability of the government.The system must have the ability to mobilize, but the premise is that there is resources to mobilize.In this regard, China (and East Asian society) is manifested in the unity of economic and society, and in the West, it is disconnected and dislocated by economy and society.The reason why the Chinese government is resistant to disease is not only because of the mobilization capabilities of the national system, but also the economic capabilities of China today.
China benefits the economic resources accumulated since the reform and opening up.In the past few decades, China has become a world manufacturing plant and can be produced everything.For example, China's mask production accounts for more than half of the world.Although China is also facing the shortage of medical supplies in the early stage of resistance, because of its huge production capacity, it quickly overcome this difficulty.The supply of sufficient medical supplies is undoubtedly the economic foundation of China's success.
The situation in the West is different.The West has the world's most developed economy, the most advanced medical system, and the public health system (especially the public health system of European countries) is also a role model for other countries in the world. But why is this resistance to this time so low?In addition to the above systems and social factors, the most important thing is the separation of economic and social.Since the 1980s, the globalization dominated by new liberalism has completely separated the economy and society.Capital is profitable, and most of the production is transferred to other countries, which makes the supply required by the state seriously in crisis.
For example, according to US statistics, 80%of medical substances and more than 90%of antibiotics are imported from China.Trump said that the United States has the largest economic and most advanced medical care, telling the people not to panic, but can ordinary people don't panic without sufficient mask and protective clothing?In Europe, Italy, Serbia and other countries cannot ask for help from Germany, France and other countries. It is not necessarily virtue and selfishness, but because of the shortage of medical supplies, we must first take care of their people.Germany intercepted medical supplies exported to other countries.These are the result of the transfer of the medical material industry chain to other countries.
From this point of view, there are many factors that determine the success or failure of a country.The system is important, but the system is not the only decisive factor.This also shows that the system decision theory will guide many fallacy.At the time of crisis, it is even more dangerous to simplify the system into an ideology like democracy and autocracy.
Like religion, ideology plays an important role in social governance and can be called soft power.However, in the face of crisis, ideology cannot be a shame of the system, otherwise it is to deceive themselves; on the contrary, people must face the reality, transcend the constraints of ideological consciousness, dare to practice, find a solution to solving problems from their own practice, and also go to their own practice, and they will also go to their own practice.The optimal practice of other countries.Practice is the ultimate source of history and never end.
(The author is a professor at the National University of Singapore and East Asia)
The article only represents personal point of view
