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Ostensibly, the U.S. government is veering towards an agreement with the world over the nomenclature of this pandemic. After weeks of using phrases like "Chinese Virus" and "Wuhan Virus" to describe the disease, senior U.S. officials have changed the tone. President Donald Trump publicly announced that he's dropping the term "Chinese Virus" during a press conference last week. And, as reported by the New York Times, his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used "COVID-19" and "coronavirus" instead of his signature "Wuhan Virus" in his tweets on April 2.
The change in rhetoric is certainly welcomed. But, beware of getting ahead of oneself. Let's see how long this "tentative, uneasy truce," as described by the NYT, could last first.
It is still unknown how deep the change goes. There are two kinds of change: the sincere and the I-need-resources-from-you-so-I-need-to-make-it-up-with-you. And it wouldn't be too cynical to say that the timing is interesting. Over the past two weeks, number of confirmed cases within the U.S. skyrocketed from over 44,000 to more than 200,000 with over 6,000 fatalities as of time of writing.
All the while, hospitals are reporting shortage of medical equipment and a surge in demand for drugs. It is reported that orders for certain antibiotics have tripled in March and consumption of some medicines jumped by 100 percent. As a country that exports ingredients for 80 percent of pharmaceuticals sold in the U.S. and reported to be producing 200 million face masks per day, China is, by logic and nature, an attractive target to ask for medical resources. Just several days ago, a plane touched down in New York carrying millions of masks and gloves procured from China.
An elder wearing face mask and gloves walks past an ATM machine in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles on April 2, 2020. /AP
And sometimes, even necessity can't stand against the historical inertia. A short video published by NBC News on April 2 states that there is a "persistent quality of America's emotional relationship to disease: That it's someone else's fault." David Rosner, professor of Sociomedical Sciences and History at Columbia University, says in the video that America's experience with disease is often split between viewing it as something that needs to be managed "communally" and as a "reflection of individual fault or individual characters or individual blame."
According to Rosner, diseases are seen as "personal problem" and "moral failing" since the early European settlers on the America continent. Foreigners, immigrants and poor people who contracted illness like cholera due to their living conditions in nineteenth century were viewed as the "problem" instead of the "victim." Medical conditions and anti-foreigner, anti-immigrant ideologies merged into one mindset that continues to exert its forces today.
Under an already nativist and isolationist climate, COVID-19 sends the sentiment into overdrive. The association between China and the virus have incited violence and discrimination towards people with Asian heritage based purely on ethnicity. Asia's mask-wearing culture has been subjected to racially charged denunciation and suspicions, with Asians who wear masks are seen as carrying the virus and those who aren't are deemed contagious and should be evaded.
It is impractical to expect such a trend to change overnight, more so when politicians at the top have been feeding this fire to gain political advantage. It is no surprise that the belief of "moral failing" causing disease to get American politicians to criticize every aspects of the Chinese society from food culture to policy in Xinjiang and accuse China of manufacturing the disease and undermining the American society. Many of these fictionalizations have been long viewed as China's "moral failings." When the public are susceptible to such a mindset, it becomes more tempting for those in power to tap into that to gain more power.
The "ceasefire" seems to be on for now. But expecting it to last without additional work might not be so sound. Under the veneer of peace and the pressure of a pandemic, China-U.S. relationship at this moment is strained by a deep historical and cultural division while sustained by a necessity for cooperation. Getting through the current crisis might enhance one these two aspects. Perhaps we will see which one soon.
Script writer: Huang Jiyuan
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