|
China and
Cuba’s Medical Internationalism is a Shining Example of
Global Solidarity
By Danny Haiphong
April 02, 2020
"Information
Clearing House"
- China
sends medical equipment abroad, Cuba sends doctors and
cutting-edge drugs, but the US fails to provide its
people, doctors and nurses with basic tools and
protection.
“How is it that the entire capitalist economy can grind
to a halt while trillions continue to be pumped into
waging war abroad?”
U.S.
imperialism has loathed China and Cuba ever since the
mid-20th century when both nations pursued a
revolutionary path and replaced the yoke of imperialism
with their own forms of socialism. Americans are
constantly bombarded with anti-communist and racist
talking points which depict China and Cuba as
“authoritarian” states that kill, torture, and repress
the so-called democratic aspirations of their own
people. The corporate media portrays the people of Cuba
and China as backward stereotypes worthy only of the
imperial targets placed on their backs. Most
people residing in the U.S. are either unaware of their
government’s imperialist war crimes or find themselves
too distracted to fight the U.S. sanctions against Cuba
or the dangerous military provocations that successive
U.S. presidential administrations have waged against
China. The COVID-19 pandemic currently wreaking havoc on
the U.S. and the West challenges the very legitimacy of
the imperialist narrative against China and Cuba for the
sheer fact that these maligned nations have been able to
organize a heroic campaign of global solidarity to
control the spread of the disease.
China was
the first country to report an outbreak of COVID-19 in
late December and the city of Wuhan has been under near
total lockdown since January 23rd. After two months of
aggressive measures to contain the virus, Wuhan and the
rest of China are now reporting zero new domestic cases
for consecutive days. This has allowed China to send its
expertise and resources all over the world to fight the
spread of the virus. Billionaire and Chinese Communist
Party member Jack Ma has sent millions of masks, testing
kits, and other medical supplies to every
country in Africa
as well several
Asian nations
such as
Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines. He has also
sent a comparable number
of medical supplies
,
including one million masks, to the United States’
Center for Disease Control. However, Chinese aid hasn’t
been limited to Jack Ma’s philanthropy. China’s central
government has sent medical and technical assistance to Italy
, Iran
, Greece
, and Venezuela
.
“Billionaire and Chinese Communist Party member Jack Ma
has sent millions of masks, testing kits, and other
medical supplies to every country in Africa.”
Chinese
solidarity abroad comes just two months after COVID-19
was infecting several thousand people per day with a
mortality rate of around two to three percent. Once the
outbreak was contained, China immediately shifted its
focus to the world stage. Contrast this with the United
States, which failed to make any preparations for
COVID-19 despite the month and a half that China
provided the rest of the world to ready itself for the
virus’ spread. China is sending protective medical
equipment abroad while massive shortages of the same
equipment exists in the United States. |
