Ethiopian Ambassador to China: I Witnessed China’s Fight Against COVID-19 from the Center to the Grassroots

Editor’s Note: Mr. Teshome Toga Chanaka, Ethiopian Ambassador to China, recently received an exclusive interview with Sun Chao, a scholar of international relations and author of the book Ambassadors’ Views on the Belt and Road Initiative. In the interview, Mr. Ambassador shared his views on China’s efforts in fighting against COVID-19 and the imperative of global coalition and cooperation as well as other hotspot issues emerged during the pandemic. Authorized by Ms. Sun Chao, China Focus publishes essence excerpts from the interview as following.

Sun Chao: As the Ambassador of Ethiopia to China, how do you see China’s efforts in fighting against COVID-19?

Ambassador Teshome Toga Chanaka: The outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was significant in the calendar of Chinese as it coincided with the beginning of the new Chinese spring festival, with an estimated movement of over 60 million Chinese throughout the country.

Since its startling outburst in Wuhan, China, towards the end of 2019, COVID-19 has now become a global pandemic. At early stage of the spread of the virus not few wrongly perceived it as a predicament solely affecting China. The reluctance and the pretence of hesitancy not to take the matter seriously and lack of early preparedness are costing humanity dearly. Once COVID-19 stretched its wings throughout the world, the reaction was spontaneous. The response was disorganized and clear global strategy and leadership was lacking. Many countries suspended flights and also evacuated their nationals from Wuhan in response to the situation in Wuhan. Doing so, it was taken as waterproof to stop the spread of the virus reaching their borders. But apparently the virus, without discrimination, knocked every border across the board, and has become ubiquitous. Meanwhile, countries waited to respond until it knocked at their doors.

Many friends and partners of China showered messages of sympathy and solidarity with the people and government of China, especially with the residents of Wuhan, the epicenter of COVID-19. Those who had the means donated some medical equipment to assist the fight until China quickly shored up its capability in a short period of time.

Today COVID-19 has become an immense global challenge that tested the capacity of the existing health systems, political and religious leadership and humanity across the globe. It is threatening and seriously disrupting social systems and cultural values. Global economies, big or small, are taken to ‘intensive care units’ (ICU); and, unless global community joins hands against this evil and salvage, the damage inflicted in continents like Africa, is indescribable. COVID-19 is not only a global health catastrophe but its implication is far broader and deeper. If not contained in the shortest possible time, like China has managed to do, the economic, social and cultural and hence the political and security consequences of COVID-19 could be much graver than we can all possibly imagine.

The Chinese took very stringent measures to protect and control the COVID-19 spread. There cannot be any better proof to that than locking down, Wuhan city- a city of eleven million residents. Many countries and cities in Europe attempted to lockdown the entire realms and cities but could not contain the fast spreading of the virus. Here is why.

In my opinion, for two simple reasons: strict enforcement of the lockdown by the city administrations and also by the full and total compliance and adherence by the general public. I think that has made the distinct difference. By locking down, the epicenter, what the Chinese did was essentially containing the virus at the hotbed and halting the spreading to other parts of China. The official statistics clearly show that about three-fourth of the total infected caseloads in China was in Hubei Province and mainly in Wuhan city.

Whether that was an effective measure or not, let me cite one principal case. The largest province of China, Guangdong, the province of over 100 million people, had an overall infected cases of 1,588 as of April 15, 2020. Large cities like Beijing and Shanghai had by far less cases of 588 and 532 respectively. In other words, even if Wuhan paid the highest price and heavy sacrifices in relative terms, the Chinese strategy of protection and containment was effective. Lockdown of the city of Wuhan was accompanied by strict stay-at-home policy and those who travelled to Wuhan city before the lockdown remained in the city until the locked down was lifted on April 8.

It has been observed that some media attempted to criticize China for being so harsh and restrictive on its citizens. Policy making has always been a matter of choice and Chinese chose to take tough measures which finally paid off. When the choice is between saving lives and maintaining personal freedom, then I would tend to go along with the choice made by China for taking stringent measures that helped save the lives of its citizens and those who are hosted by China. This is how a country has to fight a hard battle with an implacable enemy that is posing a clear and existential danger to its citizens.

Given the size of the population of China (1.4 billion) and given the fact that the virus is transmitted mainly through personal contacts, what better choice could one deploy to save the Chinese? Staying indoors for 76 days is not a good or easy thing but when the other evil is risking infection by COVID-19, rationally one opts for a lesser evil. If the Chinese were let freely move around in a crowd which is always congested because of their sheer size, today the result would have been, for sure, much different. Restricting movements and avoiding perilous consequences were efficacious instruments of a good policy choice.

The residents of Wuhan remained indoors for 11 weeks (from January 23 to April 8) and now they are enjoying their freedom. With patience, perseverance, courage they prevailed and finally saved the nation with relatively less price. By applying social distancing and strictly adhering to the directives issued by the government, they saved themselves, their loved ones and fellow human beings. They deserve great appreciation and congratulations.

Sun Chao: Thanks for affirming China’s efforts. So what do you think the role of the leadership of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government in fighting against COVID-19?

Teshome Toga Chanaka: It is important to state clearly the role of each actor. At the official reporting of the virus, the Communist Party of China (CPC) had analyzed the nature of the virus and weighed the plausible policy options. The Secretary General of CPC Central Committee and Chinese President Xi Jinping, declared the fight against COVID-19, by making bold political statement. First and foremost, President Xi asserted by saying that China is committed, determined and has the capability to defeat the virus. This call set the political direction and tone, followed by set of measures to be implemented scrupulously at all levels. Setting policy directives, procedures and protocols on protection and creating national task-force and allocating the necessary resources were the first thing in a series of actions taken by the leadership. China, a country with oldest bureaucracy, has refined structures on both accounts of the party and the government structures, from the Centre to the grassroots level. Secondly, the government also quickly organized national task-force under the State Council, the party being at the leading position.

The State Council – brought all relevant institutions together and pooled resources necessary for fighting COVID-19. The day-to-day monitoring of the execution of was done rigorously.

It was very clear that Wuhan needed extra resources and support and hence mobilizing health professionals from other provinces and from the army was absolutely necessary. This was done in an amazing speed of light. The national arrangement was meticulously decentralized at all levels of administration to the grassroots level with flexibility to adjusting to local circumstance with main parameters kept in check. The national mobilization to fight COVID-19 was very amazing and impressive, whether it was human, financial or material resources needed to effectively execute the direction set by the government. That clearly indicated the critical role of the political commitment and determination by the political leadership. The other critical issue was the Chinese capability to manage the crisis. Among other things, construction of a 1,000 bed hospital in 10 days, increasing the production capacity of protection gears from a million a day to tens of millions, was simply unbelievable. With strong commitment, China has shown to the world that it can deliver. Coupled to this was, the effective control by the Chinese health system. The capacity to screen, diagnose, test and treat those positive increased daily. The health professionals were mobilized like an army in the shortest possible time and dispatched to Wuhan. Information has it that about 42,600 medical experts, doctors and nurses from all over China has been in service in Wuhan. Thanks to their patriotism, about 94 percent of those infected in Hubei did manage to recover.

Sun Chao: Stopping the epidemic requires the support of all citizens. You might have probably witnessed the actions taken by the Chinese people in China’s battle against the virus. How do you see that?

Teshome Toga Chanaka: The role of the public in the fight against COVID-19, I think, was an indispensable factor in the positive result achieved. Fighting COVID-19, like any national crisis could have not been as successful as we see it today, without the involvement of the public. The role of the public in the protection exercise was absolutely imperative.

If we were to go by the Chinese experience, the role of the public including the residents of Wuhan in the containment of COVID-19 was simply irreplaceable. The Chinese government declared the lock down of Wuhan on the eve of the Chinese Spring festival. After the end of the initially planned 10 days, the government further extended the holidays and for all returning holiday makers 14 days isolation was imposed and the public obliged. Those who did not move in the first place were asked to remain indoors and many cities normally crowded looked like ghost cities including the capital, Beijing. Social distancing and personal hygiene and use of protective gears as guided by the relevant authorities were fully observed. Few outliers were brought to comply with strict enforcement. Such loyal and disciplined participation by the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens, undoubtedly, played great share in the protection and containment strategy designed by the Chinese government. Local and community workers with their enviable diligence, duty-boundness and patriotism were just exemplary.

Sun Chao: The Chinese people have always been concerned about the epidemic situation in Ethiopia. Please introduce the prevention and control measures taken in your country. I wonder if the Chinese experience is helpful.

Teshome Toga Chanaka: I would like to contextualize Ethiopia’s response in the light of the above. The government of Ethiopia followed the spread of the virus since it was first reported in Wuhan. Ethiopia stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the government and people of China at this challenging time. As Ethiopia’s interaction with China continued, the concerned institutions began preparation for any eventuality by way of protecting and controlling the spread of the virus. The Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute began preparation as early as they could. One was building the diagnostic and testing capacity and the capacity to treat those found positive. In line with this, the institutions worked to create awareness about the virus, screen travellers at airports, prepare medical and isolation centers and train medical personnel. The capacity is steadily being built but not yet reached to the required level. As experience from China shows, the critical measure for countries like Ethiopia and many others in Africa, I believe, is to focus on protection. The role of the public is critically vital. Therefore, awareness creation among the general public through media is being done in greater -scale now. As the cases increased recently, the government took additional measures led by the Council of Ministers. Moreover, national task force has been established at ministerial level to coordinate national and regional interventions. Several other sub-task forces have also been formed; and a task force for national resources mobilization has also been put in place.

Ethiopia also closed its land borders in its effort to contain the spread of the virus. Fourteen days mandatory quarantine has also been introduced on all arrivals. Non essential public service workers are ordered to work from home. Social events, business and religious gatherings are being suspended through their institutional mechanisms. Given the grave implications of the COVID-19, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) also launched global solidarity in support of African countries. These are some of the major steps that are taken by the government of Ethiopia under the leadership of PM Abiy. These are not easy measures for countries like Ethiopia. We are forced to choose the lesser evil. The target is to contain it at its early stage before it gets out of hand. Recently, the Council of Ministers was compelled to declare state of emergency to intensify the national effort. As behavioral change for a society with embedded communal value, to learn a new value imposed by the pandemic is not easily achievable. However, when it is life or death matter the choice is obvious. Our survival instinct if not anything should persuade us to learn new habits.

The great challenges and difficulties Ethiopia and many African countries face are similar. The nature of virus is a challenge by itself. It does not stop at borders; it affects all humanity regardless of race, religion, color, gender, geography. It is a global challenge. It is pushing the limits of the wealthiest nations. Therefore, it is not difficult to imagine the threat the virus poses on weak economies, with fragile health systems and infrastructure like Ethiopia and the rest of many African countries. The mother of all challenges is how to protect and save the lives of 110 million Ethiopians. Ethiopia’s national capability to respond adequately to the fight against COVID-19 is a number one challenge. The capacity to diagnose, test and treat, isolate and quarantine are not easy measures.

The second and most important challenge is the economic and social challenge. Weak Economies like ours will be hit hard. Short and long term strategies are needed. The national, regional and global coordination and solidarity appears to be a serious challenge. As there is huge tendency to move unilaterally and act within national borders, PM Abiy is taking several initiatives to mobilize the badly needed global strategy and support. There are some positive responses but those who could have made a big difference have not yet embraced the global coalition. The coalition of the willing should emerge and I think, Africa as the most vulnerable continent should take the driver’s seat. The effort of PM Abiy in this regard is commendable and needs the support of others. If not there, regret will follow and history will judge this generation of leaders harshly.

Sun Chao: The current epidemic situation continues to spread on the African continent. How do you view the African situation?

Teshome Toga Chanaka: Indeed, the cases in Africa are increasing. From what we observed in China, the coming two to three weeks are extremely critical. Protection and containing at the early stage is very decisive. At least, we have experience to learn from countries like China. Africans can use them by adjusting to their own specific situations. The current low cases should not lead to complacency. It is good that the African Centre for Disease Control (CDC) is coordinating continental efforts and setting guidelines based on World Health Organization (WHO) general guidelines. As PM Abiy said Africa cannot win this battle alone. Nor can others win the battle alone. Therefore, pan-African solidarity is of paramount importance. Again PM Abiy launched an initiative with Jack Ma Foundation and mobilized the batches of continent wide donation for diagnostic kits and protective gears to all 54 African Union member states. Since March 22, 2020, Ethiopian Airlines is forwarding the donations to all African capitals. This is one good example of continental and global solidarity. In the same manner PM Abiy has made an appeal to Group 7 and Group 20 countries for financial interventions without which the weak African economies can easily collapse. This is not only in Africa’s interest; by saving the continent’s economy and social fabric, the global community will also benefit. And time is of the utmost essence.

Sun Chao: China has given a hand to many African countries, including Ethiopia, while your country has also given support to China. Could you please brief us on the cooperation between Ethiopia and China in fighting the epidemic?

Teshome Toga Chanaka: China and Ethiopia have had coordination since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Wuhan. As the two countries have the highest level of cooperation, a Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership, Ethiopia stood on Chinese side during this trying time. Ethiopian leaders sent messages of solidarity and support to Chinese counterparts. PM Abiy and President Xi had a comprehensive telephone conversation on the challenges and consequences of COVID-19. President Xi expressed gratitude and appreciation to the government and peoples of Ethiopia for their unreserved support to China. The President of Ethiopia Sahlework Zewdie and PM Abiy also expressed their trust and confidence in the leadership of China and its capability to protect and control the virus. The Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, Gedu Andargachew, also wrote to his Chinese counterpart, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Ethiopian students in Wuhan and in China, Ethiopian community members and Ethiopian diplomatic missions in China also demonstrated their strong commitment and support to China during the fight against COVID-19. Ethiopian Airlines, the largest aviation group in Africa, in line with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Air Transport Association (IATA) and WHO guidelines never suspended its operation to its five destinations in China. These are practical and countable measures of solidarity.

Sun Chao: I know you choose to stay in Beijing after the outbreak in Wuhan. You have witnessed how a country, its government, and its leaders responding to the new virus. Can you talk about your experience in Beijing?

Teshome Toga Chanaka: I have personally witnessed the national fight waged by China and the national coordination from the centre to the grassroots level. President Xi Jinping at the beginning of the spread of the virus stated confidently that the government of China has the commitment, capability and determination to overcome the challenge. Now when we see the positive results today we can witness that is a practically proved mechanism. Literally all the Chinese joined hands in sense of national pride, patriotism and human solidarity. The medical experts on the frontline were in the fighting mood and certainty went beyond their call of duty. They sacrificed their precious lives and save lives of their fellow citizen and other human beings. They acted bravely and decisively. With the effort of the government, the health workers, the Chinese people, the media and all other sectors of the society, have shown to the world the way to protect and control such a national challenge. Now China with its own fight still at hand, decided to extend its support globally by sending health professionals to share experience, donating medical supplies and contributing to global system by donating to WHO. China is taking the global fight seriously and understood very well that victory can only be claimed if COVID19 is defeated globally. No country can claim unilateral victory over it. Its impact is immense. Post-crisis period recovery needs global coordinated efforts. In order to bring back our global system in place, the fight should be done together and success can only be measured globally. China has done its part in unprecedented way. Its mobilization capability and the people’s loyalty to comply with the directives of the government was extraordinary. The rest of the world should learn from it.

China, after almost brining the virus under control, in turn, is extending its solidarity to its friends like Ethiopia by sharing its experience and donating medical supplies. Ethiopia is among the first three African countries to benefit from the generous support of China. China understood very well the need for global solidarity, coordination and support if the positive results in China could be sustained. Many private sectors in China including Jack Ma Foundation, the HUAJIAN Group and others have already delivered donations to Ethiopia. Others are in the pipeline and Ethiopian task force in China is coordinating these efforts. Both China and Ethiopia value the significance of joint actions and collective efforts.

Sun Chao: When fighting the COVID-19, do you think it is necessary to develop international cooperation and coalition on a global scale?

Teshome Toga Chanaka: As I said above, this is a global challenge. It is not confined in any given territory. That is why global cooperation and global strategy are absolutely necessary. We have our global institution, WHO to coordinate and work with. WHO has enormous experiences and resources. As PM Abiy clearly stated in his recent article published by Financial Times, let us empower WHO, let us provide the necessary resource and financial support to the organization. However the current attack and discrediting of the Organization is in no one’s interest. No international institution is perfect. Nor WHO claims to be one. Now is not time to scrutinize the institution. Now is the time to work and build on its strength. As a learning institution, WHO can learn from its daily operation and redress some of its failures here and there. Focus and priority must be our guiding principle. There is no need to reinvent a wheel. WHO has regional and national offices in all member states and better qualified to lead the global response. It is time for more concerted and coordinated global effort and more, and not less. Isolated and national efforts alone could not do the job.

International cooperation and partnership at a global scale is a must when fighting the coronavirus pandemic and China, as country first exposed to the virus, can play a leading role in this action. No single county, big or small, rich or poor, South or North can win this battle in its own because the spread of the virus as we can see is borderless. The recent imported cases to China, at the wake of its control of the virus locally clearly indicate the imperative of collective action and coordination. Governments need coordination at policy level. China’s engagement with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries is a good example of regional cooperation and this can be scaled up to engage different regional arrangements in Africa and elsewhere.

Sun Chao: We all know that China’s efforts against the epidemic are also contributing to the world’s public health. But stigmas, discriminatory words and deeds have been emerging in some corners around the world. How to stop such behaviors as xenophobia and discrimination?

Teshome Toga Chanaka: People should understand that pandemics had been breaking out in any part of the world in the past and they will in the future. Virus affects all humanity. Therefore, to attach the virus to the citizens where the virus broke out is wrong. Nor is it right to attach it to any other group. This is based on wrong perception. The leaders at all levels and the ordinary people should fight equally the stigma, xenophobia and discrimination wherever it occurs. We are all human beings. In this interconnected world we can either swim together or sink together. Let us stop any signs of discrimination in relations to the virus. We need to think rationally, reasonable and act based on evidence. It is wrong to be friends in times of sunshine and to run away when it rains. Human beings should support, care and love each other at times of challenges and also celebrate victory together. Together, we can win the fight against COVID 19 and celebrate victory soon.