Keynote Speech at Joint Webinar with the Canadian Peace Congress

Dr. Tao Tao, Deputy Secretary General of the CPAPD

CPAPD International Exchanges

Keynote Speech at Joint Webinar with the Canadian Peace Congress

Dr. Tao Tao, Deputy Secretary General of the CPAPD

May 15th, 2020

Dear friends, good morning from Beijing! Very glad to be with all of you given this extraordinary situation, on the screen of course.

It’s my great pleasure to participate in this Webinar. Let me start by thanking Canadian Peace Congress and Toronto Association for Peace and Solidarity for co-hosting this meeting.

As Charles Dickens once put it: “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." At the moment, the coronavirus is sweeping across the globe, drawing intensive attention of the whole world. I’d like to use this opportunity sharing with you some facts and experience on how we fought against the virus in China.

Since January, China has fought a tough battle against the epidemic and achieved remarkable progress. At this stage, our domestic outbreak has been mostly under control, the increase of imported cases has slowed down, and the order of market and society is speeding up back to normal. Along the way of China's measures on epidemic prevention and control, considerable experience has been accumulated. Let me mention the following 3 major characteristics:

First, to bear in mind that the people is always the center. The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have always put people's lives and health first. They took a series of decisive measures, mobilized the best doctors, the best equipment, and the mostly needed resources, fully into the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. In this way, we greatly improved our testing and recovery rate, reduce the incidence and fatality rate. What’s more important is that the Chinese government has covered up all expenses in treating the disease. In this unprecedented fight, China spared no efforts and resources in saving lives!

Second, to utilize our institutional strengths. The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have played a critical role in leading the Chinese people in the successful fight against Covid-19. We ensure a coordinated national response, mobilize all social strengths, and finish the transfer of several thousand medical personnel to Wuhan overnight. The quick response could be called as unprecedented in history. China relies on its people. We mobilize inter-agency and society-wide efforts to prevent further spread of the virus. Our cadres are working at all grass-root communities, villages, towns and public places, so that to make sure that the epidemic control is carried out at every level. The system of epidemic containment in China is of great effectiveness!

Third, to stay in solidarity and seek for coordination. From the beginning till the end, there are altogether 19 provinces pairing up with cities in Hubei Province. Each of the19 assists one city in Hubei. Though in different ways, Chinese people from all ethnic groups are participating actively in fight against the virus. In the meantime, we know that China cannot achieve current success in epidemic containment all by itself. The understanding and support from the international community is crucial for China's achievement. More than 60 countries and international organizations have donated protective supplies to China since the outbreak. Facing with this major epidemic, working together is the right path!

China is a responsible major country, actively seeking stronger collaboration with the rest of the world to defeat the outbreak. Here are some facts as the following:

First, always to share the information in a public and transparent manner. The WHO has spoken highly of China’s epidemic response. China has provided accountable information for the global response against the virus. Actually, starting from 3 January, China began sending regular, timely updates about the novel coronavirus to WHO, other countries and regions, sharing first-hand information with the world on clinical and virology data, technical results and containment tactics, etc. Starting from 27 Jan, the State Council inter-agency task force on COVID-19 has been holding more than 100 daily press briefings, to respond to questions both domestic and abroad.

Second, always to push forward multilateral cooperation. China firmly supports all kinds of measures adopted by UN and WHO, so that the international community can form a coordinated response against the virus. China has donated US$50 million in cash to WHO, joined the ACT Accelerator project launched by WHO, and assisted developing countries to get ready for COVID-19. We also share our ideas and solutions, and has proposed our initiatives on how to improve the public health administrative level, how to make the world economy stable, on multilateral platforms like G20 and ASEAN 10+1.

Third, to provide assistance to other countries within our capacity. Despite a hard task of epidemic containment at home, China has been providing support and assistance to other countries to the best of its ability. The Chinese Government has set up a two-billion-yuan fund for COVID-19 cooperation, sent mostly needed medical supplies to over 150 countries and international organizations, at national and sub-national levels, also involving charity and civil organizations. At the same time, Chinese medical experts have had over 120 video conferences with their counterparts from more than 160 countries and international organizations. 21 medical teams have been dispatched to 19 countries, so that the experience on the virus could be shared among different front-line medical staff, specifically helped to improve the local ability of containment, diagnosis, and therapeutics for COVID-19. Thus boosting our confidence on jointly winning this war against the virus.

With the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, China coordinated collaboration with other countries to fight the epidemic together. China's measures against COVID-19 are open, transparent and responsible, winning respects from other countries.

Being as Chinese, we will naturally feel annoyed when we read fabricating negative information related to China, some allegations such as “Chinese Virus”, “China’s Disinformation”, “China’s Responsibility”, “China’s Compensation”. For some political figures with the absurd mind-set of ABC-“always blame China”, China has to be wrong, regardless of the facts. But we're wondering what we can do, so that ordinary people abroad can also have access to the correct information.

Inspired by what other speakers have contributed just now, I feel that China may have to make good use of 5 sorts of power, so that people outside China can have a comprehensive, correct and objective knowledge of what results China has achieved against this pandemic so far.

1st, the power of science. Information provided by scientists and medical experts are more authoritative than that of other sources. 2nd, the power of stories. Stories happening on the medical front-line in China is both vivid and credible. 3rd, the power of art. Various artistic forms, for example, music, movies and songs are attractive themselves. 4th, the power of solidarity. It is for the common good that Chinese people and peoples from different countries can support, encourage and stay solidarity with each other against this pandemic.5th, the power of justice. The virus is the common enemy of mankind. China has been fighting for our people's lives and health, which is a just cause, and will finally win the support of all peoples.

Chairman Mao has told us, "the future is bright but the road has twists and turns." We firmly believe that with the concerted efforts from peoples across the globe, we as mankind will definitely prevail over the epidemic, and achieve the final victory against this pandemic. Together we will win and together we will make a big difference for the world!

Thank you very much!