羅伯特·勞倫斯：歷史將會(huì)感謝中國在世界抗擊疫情中起到的先鋒作用

文/羅伯特·勞倫斯·庫恩（Robert Lawrance Kuhn）

習(xí)近平主席和特朗普總統(tǒng)通電話是件好事。這樣的合作對(duì)于抗擊疫情，維持、促進(jìn)全球經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展都是迫切且至關(guān)重要的。在全球范圍內(nèi)抗擊疫情和促進(jìn)全球經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展一樣，都依賴于中美的合作。

當(dāng)下，世界各國面臨的局面是：合則兩利，斗則俱傷。

中共中央政治局常委會(huì)——中國最高決策機(jī)關(guān)將這次疫情稱為“對(duì)我國治理體系和能力的一次大考”。我在中國30多年來，還沒有過這樣的經(jīng)歷。

我來解釋下我為什么相信中國能戰(zhàn)勝疫情，有三個(gè)原因：中國的投入、中國的國力以及改變和進(jìn)步的意愿。

中國通過動(dòng)員全國，阻止擴(kuò)散，展現(xiàn)了在疫情方面的重大投入。政府發(fā)布了嚴(yán)格的指令，全國上下都步調(diào)一致。中國全社會(huì)的投入是歷史性的，中國的動(dòng)員能力在全球醫(yī)療史上也是空前的，其他地方都不可能像中國一樣。而中國之所以能做到，跟黨的制度有關(guān)。中國共產(chǎn)黨在脫貧攻堅(jiān)戰(zhàn)時(shí)也展現(xiàn)了同樣的投入和動(dòng)員能力。自2012年來，中國讓超過一億人脫離貧困線。

中國對(duì)疫情的有效遏制展現(xiàn)在全國上下的身體力行中：封閉了1100萬人口的武漢以及湖北省內(nèi)外的城市，總?cè)丝跀?shù)超過6000萬；僅僅十幾天在一片空地上建起了1000個(gè)床位的醫(yī)院；挨家挨戶測(cè)量體溫，網(wǎng)格化的社會(huì)監(jiān)督管控，推遲數(shù)億人春節(jié)假期后的復(fù)工時(shí)間。

It is good that President Xi and President Trump spoke and agreed. Never has such cooperation been needed more urgently to battle and contain the pandemic and to sustain and bolster the world economy. Containing the global pandemic, like bolstering the global economy,depends on US-China cooperation.

Truly, nations will fight the virus and collectively win,or fight each other and collectively lose.

I take it seriously when the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, China’s highest authority, called the epidemic “a major test of China’s system and capacity for governance” — a phrase of such signi ficance that in my 30-plus years of watching China, I do not recall the like.

Let me explain why I was confident that China would overcome the epidemic. Three reasons: China’s commitment, China’s competence, and readiness to change and improve.

China’s commitment to fight the coronavirus was exemplified by the country’s astonishing mobilization to stop the spread. The government issued strict and resolute directives and the whole country marched to this music. This is China’s monumental “whole of society” commitment. China’s mobilization is unprecedented in global health history. Nowhere could it work like it works in China. And the reason it works relates to how the Party system works. It is the same commitment and mobilization that the Party has been using to win the battle against poverty, since around 2012, lifting the final 100 million poor people out of absolute poverty.

美國庫恩基金會(huì)主席、中國改革友誼獎(jiǎng)?wù)芦@得者羅伯特·勞倫斯·庫恩

中國改變和進(jìn)步的意愿是他們治理體系中至關(guān)重要的一部分。

我在說到過去四十年來中國突飛猛進(jìn)發(fā)展的主要原因時(shí)，總會(huì)提到中國共產(chǎn)黨愿意主動(dòng)認(rèn)錯(cuò)并且改正，雖然有時(shí)對(duì)自己過于苛刻。國家領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人坦率地承認(rèn)“缺點(diǎn)和不足”，我很敬佩。

要阻止疫情擴(kuò)散，一定要盡早行動(dòng)。但怎么建立預(yù)警體系？真正的挑戰(zhàn)在于如何處理大量的、來源不一、質(zhì)量參差不齊的信息。習(xí)近平主席呼吁，“以公開透明的方式抗擊疫情”。透明是關(guān)鍵。

面對(duì)疫情，習(xí)近平主席不斷強(qiáng)調(diào)構(gòu)建“人類命運(yùn)共同體”這一造福全球的愿景。七年來，該理念推動(dòng)了以“一帶一路”倡議為代表的中國外交政策，促進(jìn)了全球平衡發(fā)展。能夠?qū)挂咔椤⒖刂苽魅荆恰肮餐磥怼痹妇暗膬?yōu)勢(shì)之一。除此之外，還有其他益處，比如氣候控制、防止恐怖主義、禁止毒品等等。幾乎沒人能想到疫情會(huì)這樣地迅速惡化。但隨著全球各國對(duì)疫情逐漸重視起來，“共同未來”這一理念的重要性便不言而喻。

China’s competence to fight the virus is exemplified by the country’s implementation of its commitment:locking down Wuhan, a metropolis of 11 million people,and other cities, perhaps 60 million or more people in Hubei province and other places; constructed hospitals of 1000 beds, literally on green fields and literally in just days; house-to-house temperature checks; the Party’s grid management system of social control; postponing the return to work after the Lunar New Year break of hundreds of millions of travelers.

China’s readiness to change and improve is a critical part of its governance system.

When I discuss the five or so primary reasons for China’s remarkable development over the past four decades, I always include the Party’s willingness, albeit sometimes out of necessity, to admit and correct errors.I admire leadership’s forthright acknowledgement of“shortcomings and de ficiencies”.

To stop the spread of virulent diseases, early action is essential. But how to develop an early warning system? The challenge is handling an avalanche of information, from diverse public and private sources and of variegated and uncertain quality. President Xi called for “fighting the outbreak in an open and transparent manner”. Transparency is the key. Apropos of the pandemic, President Xi’s repeated call to build “a community with a shared future for all humanity” is a grand vision with multiple applications. For seven years,it has driven foreign policy, especially the Belt and Road Initiative, helping to rectify global imbalances.

While fighting disease or controlling pandemics have always been a “shared future” benefit, it was always tucked within lists of other benefits, such as climate control, preventing terrorism, interdicting drugs, and the like. Few ever imagined that a real pandemic could become so grave so fast. But as the pandemic has burst into planetary consciousness, it demonstrates viscerally the global criticality of "shared future" thinking.

By sending “battle-tested” medical teams to countries suffering under the siege of contagion, China brings to bear experts with contemporary, front line, epidemic experience. China’s evolved know-how in fighting and containing the novel coronavirus, especially the sel fless work of dedicated Chinese healthcare and logistics professionals, can enable other countries to bene fit from China’s experience.

There is a problem, though. Emotions worldwide are frayed, rubbed raw by the pandemic’s daily-life disruptions, with economic devastation threatening to exceed that of the 2008 global financial crisis. In this toxic psychological environment, when non-stop news, especially in social media, amplifies scurrilous,unsubstantiated rumors by insensitive of ficials or blockbrained conspiracy theorists, attitudes harden and antagonisms ossify. Indigenous nationalism flares in vicious circles.

Rational people must work together, not allow fringe invective to erode the capacity to fight a common enemy.

Containment of the polemic will be more challenging than containment of the coronavirus. If so, Chinese views of America, and American views of China, are only going to deteriorate further, to the detriment of all. Enlightened leadership should temper, not in flame,indigenous nationalism. We cannot allow mutual exhaustion to be our last hope. This is why the recent Xi-Trump phone call was so important.

China’s vision of “a community with a shared future for humanity”, exhorting all nations to act for the common good, fits our turbulent times. China’s vision is a universal message shared by many cultures. To be clear, read literally and without bias, a “community with a shared future for humanity” should bene fit the world. This is why the phrase should be protected and enriched by also allowing other, diverse English phases to represent the original Chinese.

The objective is to enable the global community to take collective ownership of the grand vision. Given the global pandemic, the global community must take collective ownership. What China seeks behooves people of goodwill everywhere to work together to transform rhetoric into reality.

Future historians may well look upon China’s fight against the coronavirus as a turning point in worldwide efforts to contain outbreaks of novel diseases and stop their spread, which globalization and ubiquitous air travel has made vital.

History may well thank China for pioneering how to deal with virulent contagions in a globalized world.

中國派“久經(jīng)沙場(chǎng)”的醫(yī)療團(tuán)隊(duì)到別國支援抗疫，為當(dāng)?shù)貛砹司邆洚?dāng)代流行病前沿經(jīng)驗(yàn)的專家。中國在對(duì)抗、控制新冠疫情方面的經(jīng)驗(yàn)不斷深化，尤其是醫(yī)護(hù)人員、后勤人員的無私奉獻(xiàn)，使其他國家也從中獲益。

但問題依然存在。目前全球的情緒都很緊張。疫情對(duì)日常生活造成影響，加上可能比2008年更嚴(yán)重的經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)，大家都很脆弱。在情緒如此緊張的環(huán)境下，新聞的不斷轟炸，尤其是社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)上將官員無心的言論放大為謠言，或是冥頑不化的陰謀論者都讓人們變得冷漠、敵對(duì)，極端國家主義滋生。

理性的人們要聯(lián)起手來，不要讓仇恨的言論影響對(duì)疫情的抗?fàn)帯?/p>

控制爭端將比控制新冠疫情更具挑戰(zhàn)性。如此下去，中美之間彼此的看法只會(huì)惡化，從而危及全球。優(yōu)秀的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人應(yīng)該緩和而不是煽動(dòng)極端國家主義。我們不希望看到兩敗俱傷。這就是為何習(xí)近平主席和特朗普總統(tǒng)的通話至關(guān)重要。

中國構(gòu)建“人類命運(yùn)共同體”的愿景，呼吁所有國家共同發(fā)展，正是動(dòng)蕩的當(dāng)下急需的。中國的這個(gè)愿景也得到了許多文化的認(rèn)可。客觀公正地解讀“人類命運(yùn)共同體”能讓全世界受益。因此要保護(hù)、發(fā)揚(yáng)好這個(gè)理念，同時(shí)用多樣的英語翻譯表達(dá)中文原本的意思。

這個(gè)理念旨在呼吁國際社會(huì)共同致力于實(shí)現(xiàn)這個(gè)偉大愿景。考慮到當(dāng)下的疫情，國際社會(huì)也必須如此。尤其是疫情當(dāng)前，世界各地的友好民眾也都應(yīng)該齊心協(xié)力實(shí)現(xiàn)這個(gè)愿景。

未來的歷史學(xué)家會(huì)將今天中國對(duì)疫情的斗爭視為全球范圍內(nèi)遏制新冠肺炎疫情暴發(fā)、擴(kuò)散的重要轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。

歷史將會(huì)感謝中國在世界抗擊疫情中起到的先鋒作用。（孫曄供稿）