海外網8月4日電英國《衛報》（The Guardian）8月4日在評論版頭條以“西方國家以反華情緒掩飾自己的抗疫失敗”為題發表文章，作者《柳葉刀》主編理查德· 霍頓(Richard Horton)對西方部分反華政客和學者的錯誤觀點進行逐壹駁斥，並通過自身的親身經歷表明，中國科學家在這場全球範圍的新冠肺炎疫情應對中作出突出貢獻，西方國家將疫情歸咎於中國的根本企圖是重寫歷史，掩飾自己在疫情應對時的失敗表現。

文中提到，在美國政府的帶領下，西方政客對中國的攻擊升級，為“新冷戰”制造了條件。對此，霍頓直指，這種對待中國的態度是嚴重錯誤的。“中國科學家在這場全球範圍的疫情應對中作出突出貢獻，這些反華聲音顯得與現實格格不入。”

霍頓提醒西方政客：“正是中國科學家最早報告了這場疫情對人類的威脅，是中國科學家最早記錄病毒‘人傳人’的現象，是中國科學家最先對病毒基因進行測序，也是中國科學家呼籲全球擴大檢測範圍、加強個人防護、重視全面檢疫，並發出疫情嚴重性的警告。”

“中國科學家果斷采取負責任的行動來保護人民的健康，他們建議盡早封鎖以遏制病毒傳播途徑，實施嚴格社交距離規定以簡化社交感染風險，同時還建立了臨時醫院，擴充床位容量，使得病重患者能夠得到分診重癥監護。”霍頓表示：“與此同時，盡管在疫情初期情況尚不明朗，中國政府還是第壹時間向世界發出提醒，然而西方國家卻沒有聽取這些建議。西方國家將疫情歸咎於中國的根本企圖是重寫歷史，以掩飾自己在疫情應對時的失敗表現。”

霍頓談到自己與中國政府和科學家的合作經歷介紹，中國通過非凡的努力來保障公共衛生服務。霍頓說：“我在中國與世界壹流的中國科學家和醫生合作，與中國政府合作以非凡的努力加強公共衛生服務，這些經驗告訴我，西方國家用‘有罪或者無罪’的二元裁決對中國的意圖產生了誤解。”

評論文章最後，霍頓強調：“當前地緣政治壓力凸顯，加強個人和群體之間的聯系好過削弱關系，人民之間建立理解關系尤為重要。當前西方國家的反華情緒已經演變為令人不安的病態，威脅著國際和平安全。各國政府不應在疫情期間產生沖突，敵對和威脅不能解決問題，醫療科學能夠幫助中國和西方國家建立起全新的合作模式，必須通過加強合作來共同應對疫情，這是各國人民團結起來的時刻，也是朋友之間和解、尊重和誠實的時刻。”

China has come under increasing international scrutiny and criticism – for its “wolf-warrior diplomacy”, the imprisonment and repression of the Uighur people in Xinjiang, denial of freedoms to Tibetans, belligerence towards Taiwan, the potential dangers of allowing Huawei to be part of western 5G technologies, its claims to the South China Sea, and the imposition of a draconian national security law in Hong Kong that has seemingly extinguished the pro-democracy movement.

Western politicians, led by the US government, have escalated their attacks on China, ushering in the conditions for a new cold war. Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the House of Commons defence select committee, has written that “any notion that China can be trusted must surely have been dispelled following its initial – and disastrous – attempts to conceal the Covid-19 pandemic”.

“If it transpires that the virus began its spread as a result of negligence in a Wuhan laboratory,” he continued, “it can only strengthen calls to temper China’s reach and influence.” After quoting Churchill, he argues that “the time to stand up to China is now and the country to do it is Britain”.

The Chinese government does have questions to answer. The first case of Covid-19, as later reported in the Lancet, took place in Wuhan on 1 December. Why did it take a whole month for Chinese authorities to report the outbreak of a dangerous new disease to the international community? For such a highly transmissible virus, those four weeks of silence lost precious time for alerting the world to the risks of coronavirus.

But the scale of the anti-China reaction is disproportionate to the reality of the courageous contributions made by Chinese scientists to our global understanding of this pandemic. It was Chinese scientists who first described the human threat of this new disease on 24 January. It was Chinese scientists who first documented person-to-person transmission. It was Chinese scientists who first sequenced the genome of the virus. It was Chinese scientists who called attention to the importance of scaling up access to personal protective equipment, testing and quarantine. It was Chinese scientists who warned of the threat of a pandemic.

In their book, Hidden Hand: Exposing How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World, Clive Hamilton and Mareike Ohlberg argue: “An active pushback strategy is required.” They go on to say that “boycotts are often effective” and conclude that, “western nations need to realise that a CCP-led China is not and never will be its friend”.

This approach to China is deeply mistaken. My experience of working in China, collaborating with world-class Chinese scientists and physicians, and cooperating with the Chinese government over its extraordinary efforts to strengthen its health services, tells me that China is a complex nation and that binary verdicts of guilt or innocence misunderstand its intentions.

Instead of joining the chorus of criticism against Beijing, one should perhaps try to put oneself in the position of Chinese policymakers. The common western narrative is that, as the country’s economy has grown, so have its strategic political, economic, diplomatic and military ambitions. China, so this narrative goes, now represents a threat to western leadership of the free world. China has transformed itself from being a partner to being a competitor and rival. China has to be contained.

The Chinese perspective is very different. The “century of humiliation”, when China was dominated by a colonially-minded west and Japan, only came to an end with the Communist victory in the civil war in 1949. The country grew erratically and with terrifying mistakes under Mao Zedong, who aimed to establish relatively secure national borders. Deng Xiaoping created the conditions for economic expansion, lifting as many as 800 million people out of poverty.

Every contemporary Chinese leader, including Xi Jinping, has seen their task as protecting the territorial security won by Mao and the economic security achieved by Deng. Many of China’s policymakers will argue that the government’s actions should be seen not as aggressive, but as defensive.

In the case of Covid-19, China’s scientists acted decisively and responsibly to protect the health of the Chinese people. They advised early lockdown to cut the lines of viral transmission. They implemented strict physical distancing policies to reduce social mixing. And they built temporary hospitals to expand bed capacity and to enable triage of the sickest patients to intensive care.

By contrast with the way Chinese authorities handled the Sars outbreak in 2002-03, and despite the uncertainties about what took place in December, Chinese doctors quickly warned their government and their government warned the world. Western democracies failed to listen to those warnings. There are certainly questions for China to answer, but to blame China for this pandemic is to rewrite the history of Covid-19 and to marginalise the failings of western nations.

At moments of geopolitical stress, it is surely better to intensify, not weaken, personal and institutional relationships. It is surely better to build better understanding between peoples. The present wave of anti-China sentiment has now evolved into an unpleasant, even racist, sinophobia, which threatens international peace and security. China’s 1.4 billion people are not immune from the economic shocks that are currently enveloping the world. A pandemic is a moment for solidarity between peoples, not conflict between governments.

Instead of accelerating a new cold war between the west and China, medicine and medical science can help to establish a new compact between nations. Rigorous questions can still be asked. Perceived encroachments on liberties can still be challenged. But these questions and challenges must be pursued through a commitment to strengthened cooperation, not hostile threats. A pandemic is a moment for conciliation, respect, and honesty between friends.