Editor's note: The following article is taken from the Chinese-language opinion column "The Real Point."
"Under the current circumstances, China and the United States should be united and work together to fight the novel coronavirus," Chinese President Xi Jinping said during a phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on Friday.
The phone call between the leaders of the two countries has a special significance for two reasons. One is because the outbreak is raging in the United States, making it the country with the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world. The other is that a few U.S. politicians regard the outbreak and China's prevention and control efforts from a political and prejudiced point of view, which undermines the collective efforts the two countries have been making.
At Trump's request, Xi shared in detail the prevention and control measures China had been taking in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. Xi said that China understands the United States' current predicament and stands ready to share information and experience without reserve, as well as to provide support within its capacity.
Xi's remarks demonstrated China's principles of openness, transparency and responsibility, which it has always adhered to during the pandemic prevention and control. They are an irrefutable response to certain Western politicians who attempted to shift the blame onto China by accusing the country of sharing incomplete information. Xi's remarks also underlined China's humanitarian spirit and its proposal of "a shared future for mankind." As President Xi said, Chinese people sincerely wish the United States to bring the outbreak under control soon so as to limit the losses it will inflict on the people.
In the phone call, it is worth noting that Trump lauded the opinions and proposals Xi put forward during the G20 Extraordinary Leaders' Summit and said he would make personal efforts to ensure that the United States and China can ward off distractions and concentrate on cooperation against the pandemic. He also expressed appreciation towards China for its help in providing medical supplies to the United States. Trump promised to protect Chinese expats and students in the United States. This is a good gesture and Chinese people would also love to see the United States eradicating "political viruses" as soon as possible to facilitate the Chinese-American fight against COVID-19.
As the coronavirus continues to spread throughout the world, China and the United States joining hands is a declaration of the two shouldering responsibilities for the rest of the world. This comes in the wake of the World Health Organization voicing its concerns about the risk countries with weaker health care systems may face.
China and the United States have a long history of cooperation, as well as a coordination mechanism in disease prevention and control – the two countries lead the world in developing vaccinations for disease. They both announced on March 16 that their vaccines against COVID-19 have begun clinical trials. It's obvious that cooperation between these two countries is a matter of life and death for their 1.7 billion people, as it is for the seven billion people across the world.
In the past four decades since China and the United States established diplomatic ties, bilateral relations have had their ups and downs. But leaders of the two nations, with their extraordinary political acumen, have managed to solve their differences and work together to guide themselves, and the whole world, through each crisis. As of now, Sino-U.S. relations have reached another critical juncture, and the pandemic shouldn't be a reason for the two to act against each other – it should be an opportunity for them to strengthen cooperation instead.
If they can work together, it will be a win-win for both. Fight against each other, they will both lose. In this battle against COVID-19, we are all in the same boat.
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