China’s Support to Iran in Fighting COVID-19 Commendable

When China was grappling with the outbreak of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Iran was one of the first few countries to reach out to China to express its sympathy and send emergency medical supplies.

At the height of the outbreak when shortages of surgical masks were a major safety concern in China, Iran, despite its economy hit hard by US sanctions, generously supplied three million surgical masks and said it was ready for more assistance to China to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Before it could extend any more support to China, Iran found itself caught in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, which would soon become one of the worst outbreaks outside China. According to statistics by Johns Hopkins University, as of April 1, the death toll in Iran has already crossed over 2,898, with the number of confirmed cases reaching 44,605.

In the face of crippling US sanctions, Iran has not been able to procure vital medical supplies and medicines required to contain with the outbreak, not to mention coronavirus testing kits. In the words of Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, Iranian people’s effort to fight COVID-19 are stymied by vast shortages cause by restrictions on people’s access to medicine and medical equipment. He said Iran urgently needs protective masks, gloves, coronavirus diagnostic test kits and ventilators. Due to the outbreak, the black market has mushroomed, leaving people with no choice but to buy goods at inflated prices.

Against this bleak backdrop, China has come to the aid of Iran, offering timely support and aid. China’s reciprocal support to Iran has not only demonstrated the long-standing friendship between the two comprehensive partners that do not shy away from helping each other in difficult times, but also underscores the need of more support from other regional and international actors to Iran in its fight against the pandemic, which has put the entire Middle East Region at risk.

China is one of the first few countries to extend its helping hand to Iran. In its first wave of support, China sent medical supplies, including 5, 000 test kits, 250,000 surgical masks and 13 respiratory machines along with a team of health experts from the Red Cross Society of China on February 29. The team currently help the Iranian authorities assess the pandemic situation there, share China’s experience in battling the COVID-19, and set up necessary quarantine measures required to contain the spread of the virus. Apart from that, the team also arranged a teleconference between top Chinese experts and their Iranian counterparts to share the severity of the pandemic in Iran and discuss possible preventive measures, including necessary logistic supports.

The coronavirus was fast spreading in China in early February as it is now in Iran. China acted decisively, putting into place strict quarantine measures and travel restrictions, and ramping up treatments of the infected cases. The preventive measures brought the whole country to a halt but it proved effective in containing the spread of the virus as the number of new infected cases started to drastically decrease in a matter of few weeks. Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, has reported zero infection for the last few consecutive days. With signs that the outbreak is coming under control, China is slowly gaining a sense of normalcy and gearing up to kick-start the second largest economy in the world. However, the Chinese government has been careful about loosening up its preventive measures all at once, as it does not want to take rise of another round of outbreak by opening haphazardly.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has hailed China for its measures in battling the coronavirus. As much as the Chinese government has shifted its focus from containing the virus to resuming the economy domestically, it has assumed a new role of extending logistic supports and sharing its experience fighting the virus with other stricken countries like Iran so that they can effectively fight the deadly virus, which has already killed over 42,107 people and infected more than 857,487 people worldwide as of April 1, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a letter on March 14 to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, already assured the Iranian side that China will provide as much assistance as it can for Iran in its fight against the coronavirus.

In a move to further help ease the situation for Iran, China has urged the US to immediately lift unilateral sanctions imposed against Iran. Geng Shuang, spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry, in a recent press conference said, “Continued sanction is against humanitarianism and hampers Iran’s epidemic response and delivery of humanitarian aid by the UN and other organizations.”

Beijing and Tehran are sister cities since 2014. This week, Beijing Municipality sent 30 tons of medical and healthcare items to its Iranian sister city to support in the fight against the coronavirus.

China’s support to Iran, however, has not only come from the government level, but it has also poured from the business communities and the public level. The Iranian state news agency on March 13 reported that more than 50 businessmen and private-sector companies in China participated directly or in the form of business associations in the campaign to send aid to Iran. They provided around 120,000 masks and other sanitary items. Shanghai-based companies sent around two tons of medical supplies including gowns, masks, oximetry, protective glasses, gloves and medicines. Chinese people have contributed about four million yuan to Iran under the fund-raising campaign launched by the Iranian embassy in China, according to the global times.

Chinese business tycoon Jack Ma and his philanthropic organization, the Alibaba Foundation, likewise donated supplies to Iran along with other countries. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the official news agency of Iran, on March 6 reported that Mr. Ma has donated one million masks to Iran. Making the announcement of the donation, Mr. Ma said he hoped “the masks could help reduce Iran’s urgent need to protect children and end the corona pandemic as soon as possible and make the world healthier.”

Likewise, many students from China and Iran have teamed up online to translate China’s anti-pandemic materials and experiences into Persian language to raise awareness of prevention measures among Iranians.

After Chen Binbin, a PhD candidate at Peking University who once was a Chinese language teacher in Tehran, learned that there was a dearth of anti-coronavirus knowledge in Iran, she launched an online campaign “China-Iran Epidemic Prevention Mutual Assistance Team and collaborated with Iranians in and outside China to translate scientific papers, anti-prevention documents and videos, and share them on social-media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Her team’s videos have become popular in Iran.

China’s support to Iran is indeed commendable at the time when the Middle Eastern country is reeling under the US sanctions. It has also prompted other countries like the UK, France, Turkey, Russia and Pakistan to come forward to offer monetary and medical aid to Iran, and mount pressure on the US to lift its sanctions.

Drawing experiences and lessons from China’s in containing the virus outbreak, Iran should forge ahead in its fight against the virus. Iran, which is facing an acute shortage of medical supplies, should give consideration to China’s traditional Chinese medicine (TMC). Health authorities in China aid that more than 85 percent of its coronavirus patients were given traditional Chinese medicines along with other antiviral drugs. Even though there is skepticism about China’s TCM in Western countries, the recovery rate among infected patients in China proves TCM to be effective.

Cooperation between China and Iran in the fight against the epidemic has shown that preventing the further spread of COVID-19 is a shared responsibility for us all as stated by António Guterres, General Secretary of the United Nations.

If China can declare victory against the coronavirus, it won’t be long for Iran to win the battle.

Reehan Rao is Pakistani economic, business & financial analyst, and is currently pursuing his master’s in global business journalism at Tsinghua University.

Copy Editor: Cai Hairuo