China shows best practices in virus battle, experts say

China has shown best practices to the world in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and its valuable experience offers many useful lessons for other countries, experts said.

A white paper titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action" was released by the State Council Information Office on Sunday and contains data, procedures and details of preventive measures and treatments for COVID-19.

Ruben Carlo O. Asuncion, chief economist at UnionBank of the Philippines, said the release of the white paper bodes well for further containment strategies and is a great addition to lessons learned from nations such as South Korea and New Zealand, which also succeeded in controlling the virus.

"China's valuable experience versus COVID-19 offers many useful lessons for other countries, and, hopefully, this will inspire them to be successful, like China, in combating the lethal virus," he said.

The Philippines, which is now fighting the novel coronavirus, can learn from the best practices employed by China, Asuncion added.

Christopher Bovis, a professor of international business law at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom, said China has contributed best practices to the global effort to combat the pandemic and has urged global leaders to think long term and strategically to ensure that the recovery starts as soon as the pandemic is over.

Moreover, China has shown commitments to global collaboration in research, vaccine development and provision of medical equipment to fight the novel coronavirus. It also encourages openness and data sharing in order to "help ensure diagnostics, vaccines and prevention measures are developed rapidly for the benefit of every nation".

"China's best practices in social distancing and movement control have paid dividends in controlling infected areas. A pioneering system of screening and monitoring the population has played a significant role in the dynamic planning of response measures by governments. Scientific research and sharing disseminated outputs have assisted in containing the source of infection and in extending treatment," he said.

Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Program, said in reference to the white paper on Monday that "when any country publishes an evaluation of their response, it's always a good thing to see what lessons are to be learned".

"We will read the documents from China, as we do from all countries, with interest to learn lessons," he said, adding that the world should also focus on what to do to prevent a second wave of the epidemic.

Sikhumbuzo Zondi, a research assistant at the Institute for Global Dialogue, associated with the University of South Africa, said that the white paper shares with the global community China's successful experience in stopping the spread of COVID-19.

He also said that Beijing firmly holds the view that "COVID-19 could be defeated mostly through means of global information sharing, cooperation and unity to steer a collective response".

"In this regard, China has assisted many African countries in these trying times, including Ethiopia and Algeria among others, by sending medical staff and facilities to help combat the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus," he said.

Rana Mitter, director of the University of Oxford China Centre, said that scientific cooperation is the only way that the world will defeat COVID-19, and there have been more attempts to create scientific cooperation across frontiers and boundaries.

"The priority must be to make sure that research on the virus is carried out with full transparency and with no distinction about where the research comes from. The West, China and the wider world all have a vital role to play in defeating the virus," he said.

Chen Weihua in Brussels, Han Baoyi in London, Edith Mutethya in Nairobi and Chen Yingqun in Beijing contributed to this story.