How the new crown pneumonia pandemic will change the global pattern
■ Observer
Robert Stella, Italy's chief medical officer, died of new crown pneumonia on March 12. Although he is not the first and probably not the last politician to die because of this, his misfortune has caused a greater panic in Italy-as an official in charge of medical affairs, if he can not survive Then, in Italy, where there is already an extreme shortage of medical resources and the epidemic has spread into the woods, how can the general public be self-contained?
Stella's case makes the behavior of U.S. President Trump and British Prime Minister Johnson somewhat ridiculous: Trump once rejected the virus test, and Johnson still rejects the virus test.
So far, more than 40 dignitaries worldwide have been infected with the virus. This is probably the most common worldwide disaster we have ever witnessed. At the same time, U.S. stocks melted down twice a week, and Wall Street fell into panic. Many countries issued "limitation orders" to prohibit speculators from taking short positions.
Anti-globalists are probably the most angry "prophets" in this trend. Over the past two or three years, this group has grown and formed a trend. "New York Times" commentator Peter Goodman commented on March 6 and did not vaguely believe that the outbreak has greatly strengthened anti-globalists.
Indeed, globalization looks much like the messenger of the virus. Airplanes, high-speed railways, cruise liners, and highway networks—the modern transportation that once made travel easier for us—have become the biggest accomplices in the spread of the virus. Even if the United States had issued a ban since the outbreak of China, it could not block all traffic.
European right-wingers have begun to propagate their prophecy-like predictions again: if it were not for the large numbers of refugees from the Middle East and Africa, and if Europe had been as strong as they had been, why would the European epidemic be so difficult to contain?
The United States has declared a state of emergency, Italy has imposed a national blockade, South Korea has shut down, and the entire Middle East is blocking the border ... These are all proclaiming that globalization may be "crashing." Globalization, which has suffered a severe setback in the past two years, seems to be the biggest victim of the outbreak.
Goodman cites the research of Oxford University professor Ian Golding that the epidemic only reveals a fatal flaw in globalization: it is an under-regulated movement, and each country has always held out for the difficulties and crises of others. With an indifferent attitude, an outbreak in one country can be burned to all countries.
Countries that have imposed travel bans since the outbreak of China, including the United States, South Korea, and Japan, have failed to prevent the invasion. And the British government also said that even if the entire blockade is now underway, it can only delay the spread of the epidemic by one or two days. Therefore, it is not globalization that has caused the epidemic, but casual supervision and inaction are its greatest help.
After globalization, traditional geopolitical strategies and regional confrontations have eased, but non-traditional security factors, terrorism, environmental degradation and public health crises have become common global enemies. However, many cooperations on these non-traditional security factors are inadequate. Cooperation and solutions to these problems are the underlying factors that enable globalization to bring universal well-being to the world.
The outbreak is a public health crisis, but it is not limited to this. World-wide production and trade will continue to be affected in the coming months. In relatively backward countries, as the epidemic continues, dissatisfaction among the middle and lower classes continues to accumulate, and as the number of infections and deaths increases, many unpredictable changes occur.
Active financial and public investment is bound to be a life-saving straw for countries to save their economies after the epidemic. Keynesianism may return to focus after World War II, but the problem is that there is no Marshall in the world, and the self-care United States is unlikely to reach out to Europe. The global epidemic has added a theme to environmentalists, and it is almost inevitable that topics will extend from climate to public health and politics.
This is almost the gestation period for a major global change. The isolation and halt of the epidemic have left the entire world behind closed doors to think and plan for action. Over the past few decades, forces from all sides have dreamed of an opportunity. Either the geostrategic strategy will be restarted and the world will return to the era of all-round competition; or globalization will penetrate into the bone marrow and become a chorus that truly faces the world's great harmony. But no one person or power can mobilize the nerves and powers of the world. A tiny virus did it.
Behind every world change is an invisible pair of natural hands. What we can expect is that this epidemic will become a globalized adjustment and deepening of global change. At this time, for example, policy makers in all countries can understand that nationalism, geostrategy, and the vicious competition of the state cannot bring themselves to themselves. Only by truly relying on each other and supporting each other can we build a more effective, perfect, and common gain. Benefiting global prosperity, then we are not suffering this injury in vain.
Lian Qingchuan (column writer)