Morgunblaðið Publishes a Signed Article by Ambassador Jin Zhijian Entitled "COVID-19 Is a Common Enemy of All Mankind"
2021-08-16 19:21
 

 

On August 16, the famous Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið published a signed article by Ambassador Jin Zhijian entitled "COVID-19 Is a Common Enemy of All Mankind".

The full text is as follows:

COVID-19 is the most widespread global pandemic that human beings have encountered in the past 100 years. It is heartbreaking to see that COVID-19 has imposed a major impact on many countries and their people with more than 4 million deaths and over 200 million confirmed cases worldwide. In the face of this global disaster, how to effectively respond to and step out of the doldrums as soon as possible requires the international community to come up with practical and feasible plans.

First of all, we should devote every effort to control the pandemic as soon as possible. COVID-19 is highly contagious and constantly produces new coronavirus variants. A little carelessness can cause a wide range of infections. All parties concerned need to pay close attention to the virus and take effective measures to prevent it from further spreading. China was the first country to discover and report COVID-19 to the WHO. Since the beginning of 2020, the Chinese government has put people and people's life first, and has taken the most comprehensive, most stringent and most thorough prevention and control measures, and has won the battle against the epidemic in a relatively short period of time.

As the pandemic continues to ebb and flow in some parts of China, the current epidemic situation can be controlled overall.The daily figure for new cases has remained limited. China has taken effective measures to prevent COVID-19 from re-entering and is speeding up its vaccination efforts. Over 1.86 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in China as of August 15, ranking the first worldwide. The Chinese economy has registered steady growth. In the first half of 2021, China's GDP grew by 12.7% year-on-year, making important contributions to stimulating global economic recovery.

In the face of the pandemic, all countries in the world need to unite to overcome the difficulties. COVID-19 will not treat people differently because of their race or gender. No country can stay immune in the battle against the virus, and the pandemic can be defeated only through solidarity and cooperation by mankind. After the outbreak of COVID-19, China has actively advanced global anti-epidemic cooperation and honored its pledge to make vaccines a global public good. China carried out its largest emergency humanitarian action since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. China has to date provided a large number of anti-epidemic supplies to over 160 countries and international organizations, as well as more than 800 million doses of vaccine and concentrates to over 100 countries and international organizations, one sixth of the total global output. China has provided most doses of vaccine to developing countries in the world. China's commitment to provide 20 million doses of vaccine to the WHO-led COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) is being implemented smoothly.

China has been open and transparent on the issue of origin-tracing and invited WHO experts to China twice. The WHO-Convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-Cov-2: China Part was published in July this year and has been recognized by the international community and the scientific community, laying a solid foundation for the next phase of origin studies. China holds that origin-tracing is a major and complex scientific issue, which requires the collaboration of scientists around the world, as well as the joint efforts and participation of governments and people of all countries. China opposes the politicizing of origin-tracing studies. Constant and long-term origin tracing studies on a global scale in a sound manner should be actively promoted. International exchanges and cooperation on origin tracing research should be further enhanced, and the re-infection of similar virus on animal and humans could be prevented with utmost effort globally.

Facing COVID-19, China and Iceland have supported each other and worked together, writing a new chapter of friendship in the bilateral relations. China appreciates the care and goodwill expressed by the Icelandic government and Icelandic friends from all walks of life in different ways. At the same time, China has also tried its best to provide medical supplies to the Icelandic side. We are glad to see the achievements made by Iceland in scientific epidemic prevention, and hope that we will further strengthen cooperation in the fight against COVID-19 so as to make greater contributions to the global fight against the pandemic.

Currently, the world still faces on-going pandemic, and different countries are responding variously. "The political virus" is sabotaging international cooperation on fighting the pandemic, and the global pandemic situation remains complicated and grave. It is a shared aspiration of the international community to win a global victory over COVID-19, recover economic growth and resume a normal life at an early date. COVID-19 is a common enemy of all mankind. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded the world in such a memorable way that human beings are closely connected and live in a community with a shared future. In the face of the pandemic, we must uphold the vision of building a global community of health for all, stand together in solidarity, and firmly reject any attempt or act to politicize, label or stigmatize the virus, so as to make unremitting efforts with concrete actions to safeguard people's life and realize an early and complete victory over the pandemic.

 

Chinese Ambassador to Iceland Jin Zhijian