Editor's Note: Pan Deng is a member of the Academic Committee at the Charhar Institute, the executive director of the Latin America Law Center of China University of Political Science and Law, and distinguished professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at the Southwest University of Science and Technology. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, negative comments about China have never ceased. If we look at China's response, except for the necessary tough refutation to clearly provocative remarks, this Asian power seems to be more inclined to stay out of all the buzz amid the pandemic.

A textbook example

The Chinese mainland was first place where coronavirus began attracting attention. It's true that before the end of January, the local government in China was hesitant in taking measures against the disease. In fact, almost all governments in the world showed the same hesitation when they first encountered sporadic cases. However, China's subsequent actions can be characterized as a textbook response to a virus outbreak.

The first step was to introduce a lockdown of Wuhan City and later Hubei Province, which effectively cut off the chain of transmission to the rest of the country. Then the central government mobilized the whole country to support the province, so that the outbreak gradually came under control in the hardest hit areas.

In the meantime, in areas where the possibility of community transmission was ruled out, production quickly resumed. On March 23, the Chinese government announced that the spread of the virus had been basically curbed in Hubei Province and the epicenter of Wuhan. Since then, most of the limited number of new cases in China have been imported from abroad. Wuhan, the once epicenter of the outbreak, will end the lockdown on April 8.

The West's Sense of Superiority

Despite all the evidence to illustrate the success of China's response to the virus, there are still some Westerners who have problems grasping the reality and the situation on the ground.

It's known that when the virus initially appeared in Asia, some Western countries played as indifferent onlookers, and even bought into the illusion that the virus only infected Asians. Therefore, most Western countries believed that as long as the strictest border control is in place, the virus could be kept away from their countries. However, to everyone's surprise, when the outbreak in Asia was basically under control, COVID-19 began to take over Europe and America, and the number of confirmed cases sometimes doubled in three days in some countries. Now, the situation in the United States looks particularly grim.

However, those self-defeating "China bashing" aside, the ongoing Western reflections on its response to the pandemic are mostly limited to objective reasons.

Frankly speaking, if you want to find the direct cause of their conundrum today, negligence is to blame. The New York Times, which has been taking opportunities to bash China's early efforts, admitted that the West squandered the time China bought it. Had not it missed the best window of opportunity to control the virus, there might not have been a surge of cases and a shortage of medical supplies in the West. However, in the fanatic pursuit of "free speech," how many people really took the time to ask the tough questions?

The Western world is used to boasting the most advanced civilization of mankind. In fact, since the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, the United States and Europe have indeed been the one of the most important contributors and promoters of modern societies in the world. This has also led Westerners to take the vantage point of conquerors and leaders and look down upon other regions, including in the areas of emergency response and health care. They do have reliable medical facilities, well-established early warning systems and a reasonably developed healthcare environment. The previous Ebola and SARS outbreaks were successfully contained. But today's situation proves that self-confidence alone is not enough to beat COVID-19. Instead, it becomes the underlying cause of their persistent panic.

In order to secure the much-needed international assistance, countries must let go of their arrogance. But will the West really ditch its sense of superiority over Asia, Africa and Latin America simply for the assistance?

Moreover, more caveat ought to be placed for ideological prejudice and hostility of the Cold War mentality. Some politicians have always had doubts and fears about the rise of China. Even when it reaches out to help others with its resources and capabilities, it could be interpreted as competing for global leadership. Even some technical experience sharing could trigger the alarm that China seeks to export its governance model.

In other words, no matter how well China does in fighting the virus, the unfavorable situation, where it has to seek development on one hand and deal with misunderstanding by foreign countries on the other, is unlikely to be quickly reversed during and after the pandemic.

Rest assured, this will not be cited as an excuse by China to give up its friendship with the world or to stop resolving misunderstandings. Joint response to the crisis still represents the best chance to tackle trust issues and ideological differences.

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