The Pakistan Institute of China Studies (PICS) Sargodha University on Tuesday organised a webinar on “Dealing with Pandemic: Lessons from China” to discuss and learn from the Chinese best practices and strategies in containing and controlling the deadly virus.
The webinar brought together distinguished panelists think tanks from China and across Pakistan. It was moderated by the Director PICS Dr Fazal ur Rahman, while the panelists included, the Vice Dean of National Institute of International Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Ye Hailin, Head of Xinjiang, the Institute of Borderlands Studies Chines Academy of Social Sciences Xu Jianying, senior Journalist of China Media Group Urdu Services Wang Qianting, Australian National University Research Fellow Xiaoyu Lu, Director Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies Amir Rana, and Director Pakistan Council on China Hamayoun Khan.
Addressing the webinar, Ye Hailin said that COVID-19 crisis were not like the previous health crisis and it would change the mankind history. China has better public health facilities in comparison to all other nations of East, West and European Union, he said adding that there was a dire need to address public health opportunities and to invest in public health sector. He stressed on transforming BRI and CPEC’s investments focus from infrastructure to public health sector.
Xu Jianying deliberated on citizen’s responsibility in adopting precautions and the treatment. Strong leadership, medical facilities, high precautions and self-responsibility of the public enabled China to deal with this deadly virus.
Ms Wang Qianting informed about the white paper titled “Fighting COVID-19: China in Action,” issued by the Government of China consisting of four chapters. The white paper explains China’s prevention, control and treatment efforts in the battle against the virus, as well as the efforts made at a global level in international cooperation. Public Health depends not only on the medical technology but also greatly on the infrastructure and Government’s mode of operation, its determination, efficiency and the balance of civic consciousness and public awareness, she added.
Xiaoyu Lu was of the view that the most valuable lesson, other countries need to learn from China was how efficiently China transformed the public security institutions to public health institutions in order to address the Covid’19 and public health crisis.
Hamayoun Khan stressed on the need of cohesive efforts globally, to increase global health security for which multilateral cooperation is mandatory. He said that if the response against pandemic was globally compared among the East and West, then clearly China has on the top.
Amir Rana expressed his concerns over the global leadership gap, the way US and other countries responded in dealing with the pandemic. China has the capability and capacity to fill this vacuum and it has proved the world through its open, transparent and responsible attitude and response. He also highlighted the Chinese, Italian and Russian approaches to deal with the pandemic.
