How will the Coronavirus change global politics? | DW Analysis

The Coronavirus is sweeping around the world. It’s a global emergency like we’ve never seen before. Europe now has become epicentre of the Corona crisis. Italy is ground zero, and its healthcare system is buckling under the pressure. Scenes like this could come soon in Spain, France and Germany too. And European leaders are warning it could get much, much worse.

And the US isn’t far behind, although the president insists he is on top of things. But the markets don’t seem to agree. The economy is heading for a huge recession.

Back in China, where it all began, the worst seemsto be over, at least for now. Infections are down dramatically from their peak and president Xi Jinping has been to visit healthcare workers in the city of Wuhan, which is China's ground zero. Some have even said China’s response is a model for the world. An extreme lockdown that helped to slow the virus’s spread, a makeshift hospital built in a matter of days, all made possible by an authoritarian regime that is able to act quickly and decisively.

Is that true? Do you need to be a dictatorship to handle a killer virus? Are Europe and the US at a fatal disadvantage in tackling this intense crisis? We’re going to compare these three big players: China, where it all began, Europe, now at the centre of the pandemic, and the US, where infections are spreading fast. Our Analysis is taking a deep dive in what’s going wrong, what’s going right, and what global politics might look like after this crisis.

Follow DW on social media:
#Coronavirus #Analysis

[dwnews]

What will change in global politics after this crisis?

[zhaozhisun]

It´s not about politics. It´s about culture. China, South Korea, and maybe Japan are all doing pretty well on controlling the spread of the virus. Because the people there have a stronger sense of the greater good and this is critical when facing natural disasters like this. In China, doctors and nurses from all over the country, from as far as more than a thousand kilometres, were sent to Hubei to help with the massive number of patients. Are Europeans willing to help your close neighbours?

[conmaster]

People just forgot that we all live on the same planet

[ronin]

Strange south korea is not authoritarian government, yet had the best response to covid.

[TingyuGu]

As a Chinese having lived in Toronto for 5 years, I’m still no fan of authoritarianism. But the current situation of so called western democracy must progress and evolve. No matter how nice words they use, most of the politicians are more fond of votes rather than sense of responsibility.

For those people who still believe in freedom and democracy, we should realize, that we are not doing well and if we cannot be more wise and do better, more and more people will finally lose hope in democracy and embrace authoritarianism or dictatorship, which is already happening in China. It’s not democracy failing us, it’s we fools failing democracy. Admit we are foolish and we should do better.

[pictureplay]

WHY ON EARTH PEOPLE AND MEDIA ARE FORGETTING ABOUT HOW EXCELLENT TAIWAN HAVE BEEN HANDLING THIS COVID19 PANDEMIC?

[jonathanedwardgibson]

Why conflate effective government with authoritarian? Your standards appear rather low, DW team.

[naverno]

No one is looking at China with envy except for this lady.

[MihailBFC]

I'm so afraid for my parents, they are old and already sick, God help us now 😭😭😭

[Yan-oxsi]

The lady's information about Taiwan is inaccurate. Taiwan is among the first three coutries (N. Korea and Russia) who shut down its border to mainland China, which is a major reason for its low infected cases. The measures taken by South Korea and Japan are more applicable to the western countries.

[cabrosbob]

You don't have to be a dictator to Contain a pandemic. Dictatorship is more killer than any pandemic ever.

[virenhada]

we should look at South Korea for example. They did proper testing and got things under control.

[pushcartoldman]

DW, when you are talking about the Chinese mistake and delay in the beginning of the outbreak, what Europe and North America had done while China was in lockdown which had saved 1.5 to 2 months for the rest of the world to be prepared for probable global outbreak, did Europe and North America had lost the golden chance in preparation against outbreak? Didn't you all repeat the China earlier mishandling mistake?

[kristenpham]

It's not about politics. Countries in Europe like Italy, Spain and Germany, who have close business relationships with China, had the opportunities to prepare for the virus and their governments had the opportunities to warn their citizens early about this contagious virus, but they did not.
I'm of Asian descent, living in Germany. As much as I love the country, people's attitudes towards the virus have been unbelievably ignorant. The most common reaction I've heard up until last week was "I don't give a damn about the virus".
I don't think politics will change after this. But the way people look at the situation and behave accordingly may change

[lostcrusader]

The Chinese government silenced doctor Li Wenliang who warned about the virus before it spread. This leads to more question about the situation

[xuhan]

A big reason for Western countries' failure in containing the virus is people's attitude (culture). People, including the government, don't take this virus seriously. At this time, a lot of people are still gathering and calling the pandemic a hype. This is not bravery. It is illusionary confidence, like believing you can beat Mike Tyson after your first boxing class.

You (even as a citizen) should've thought about medical supply shortage and potential breakouts way earlier, before the time when you were told "the risk is still low".

[iszotic]

If this is about politics you should say as a disclaimer that China, as an authoritative country without any media outlet outsize state media checking, doesn't have transparent figures.

[jryn]

It's not about different politics but different cultures and experiences.

[venkatesanravi]

22:30 stop wasting water when you ain't needing it, turn the tap off man!

[domm]

An increase of 30% per day is actually MORE than double every three days, more like 120% increase over 3 days if the 30% growth rate is exponential.