An Important Revelation from the Coronavirus Pandemic:
Strengthening the Public Sector[1]
Part I
Reflecting on the pandemic is helpful
for strengthening our sense of belonging
to the global community
Zhang Min: Dear Professor Rios! I am very delighted to exchange views with you via Guangming International Forum. The new coronavirus pneumonia pandemic is still spreading all over the world and is far from over. The worldwide number of confirmed cases has reached more than 20 million, and the death toll has exceeded 700,000. Human beings are experiencing the biggest public health emergency of this century. When the American meteorologist Edward Lorenz first mentioned the butterfly effect in 1963, he probably did not expect that the new coronavirus pneumonia pandemic would bring the butterfly effect at the global level. The pandemic once again reminds people that either developed economies, or developing countries, or underdeveloped countries, they are all just part of this planet, and they are interdependent and mutually influenced. At the early stage of the outbreak of the pandemic, some countries practiced unilateralist actions, such as hands-off and detaching itself from our interconnected world, but this can only aggravate the spread of the virus on a larger scale. This major public health emergency eventually triggered the most severe economic recession after the World War II. Human society is a community with a shared future. How do you view the impact of the pandemic on human society?
Xulio Rios: I am also very glad to exchange views with you. The pandemic is a factual and unequivocal demonstration of the so-called “butterfly effect”: a problem detected in a certain area of the world that soon shows its consequences in practically the entire globe, affecting humanity as a whole. It is evidence that the world is a whole, a system in which everything matters and everything has repercussions, so that nothing should be ignored or undervalued. The theoretical understanding of this reasoning offers no doubt; now we are living it in first person. We need to understand that no one is on the sidelines or safe. What was experienced in Asia several years ago, we are all experiencing on a planetary level now. The fact that SARS or MERS did not reach Europe or the United States in its day, explains to some extent that our governments have reacted late and badly. The Covid-19 will mark a turning point for everyone.
[1] The dialogue was published by Guangming Daily, on August 13, 2020. The China-CEE Institute is authorized to publish the English version.
[2] Senior Researcher fellow from Institute of European Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Spanish Studies of CASS, China
[3] Dean of the Galician Institute of International Analysis and Documentation, director of the Spanish China Policy Observatory, Member of the Advisory Board of “CASA ASIA”, Professor of Institute of Higher Education, Spain