Climate change, COVID-19 can be key areas for US, China to cooperate: US historian

NEW YORK - There are many key areas such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic where the United States and China have the opportunity to cooperate so as to not only avert disaster but also serve their common interests, a US historian said recently.

"Avoiding climate catastrophe is certainly a key area in which they would be well-served by cooperation," Lawrence Wittner, professor emeritus of the Department of History at the State University of New York at Albany, wrote in an article published Sunday on US publication History News Network.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how easily disease can spread and disrupt the lives of people around the world and, particularly, how no nation is safe until all are safe. In this area, too, it is vital to mobilize the advanced medical and scientific resources of the United States and China in a cooperative effort to safeguard global health," Wittner wrote.

Besides, bilateral cooperation on economy "could reduce global poverty, outlaw multinational corporate malfeasance, and regulate trade," whereas joint efforts in fighting against crimes "could address cyberattacks and piracy," he wrote.

Wittner noted that over the decades, the two countries have joined hands in "stopping Ebola, reducing the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons, averting global financial catastrophe, and assuring food safety."

The US historian also noted the joint statement on climate change cooperation issued between the two countries in April.

"Cooperation between the two nations is not as far-fetched as it might seem," he wrote.