MAS944 Global Cities Reflection Piece

　Xinyi Wan (Iris) Lecturer: Diganta Das Word Count (-/+ 10%): 2500

　1 ． Instruction The intractability of Covid-19 has forced the world to fall into an unprecedented complicated situation. Currently, the consequences and “dark side” of the pandemic have increasingly manifested. As the result, issues following infection, death, and quarantine are inequalities, injustices, unemployment, bankrupts, debt, chaos, and exhaustion (Lawreniuk, 2020). How to deal with these side effects seems to be much more difficult than control the spread of coronavirus. Countries have implemented plenty of policies in various ways in response to coronavirus, the disparate attitudes to the Covid-19 decide the large distinction on the outcomes. It is too early to judge which policies or which countries are advanced or correct in decision making. From my perspective, I am a resident of city Wuhan which reported the first case of infection in December 2019 (Nelson, 2020). As a witness who experienced the entire outbreak of the virus and the process of “return to the normal “in Wuhan (Nelson, 2020), sharing experiences and unforgettable memories has referential meaning to this paper. The purpose of this reflection is to enumerate city Wuhan as an example and evaluate the strategies of controlling the epidemic and rebuilding the city. Moreover, through reflecting on journal articles by Dr. Sabina Lawreniuk and Dr.and Dr. Anitra Nelson, this paper will discuss the invisible capitalism behind the Covid-19 policies and justify that the nature of human rights must be inconsistent with human’s life and well-being instead of serving the capitalism or politics.

　 2 ． A novel coronavirus in Wuhan: three stages from outbreak to disappear

　To compare the prominent contrast of the before and the after the epidemic, I scaffold the event into three stages. Through tracking the timeline, it is evident of Dr. Creighton Connolly, S Harris Ali, and Roger Keil’s view that the survival in Covid-19 requires co-ordination between governments, health workers, researchers, and each ordinary citizen (Connolly et al., 2020).

　 2 ．1 Stage 1: Cover up, panic, bureaucratism, and chaos during the sudden outbreak

　The first time I was informed of the virus was in November. People working in the hospital alerted their friends and families to protect themselves from a coronavirus and their posts on WeChat were spread on the internet, people in Wuhan were in a panic for the coming back of “SARS”. Inexpertly, the Situation, later on, has been far more uncontrollable than the SARS in 2001. Until Dr. Zhong Nanshan went to Wuhan and disclosed the human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus, the government had hindered the real data and denied the possibility of an epidemic("Zhong Nanshan", 2020) , people in Wuhan had lived in normal and held a lot of assemblies for the celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year（Figure 1 ）. On 31 December, China reported the first case of infection. On 23 January, Wuhan Locked down ("Wuhan", 2020). According to the custom, People in China will return to their hometown for the spring festival and there is a period called “Spring festival travel rush “, especially for Wuhan that has the maximum number of universities (86 universities in total) in China ("Wuhan", 2020). However, this hectic period happened before Wuhan was quarantined, what is worst is that Wuhan is

　China’s busiest regional transportation hub (Connolly et al., 2020), namely "Nine Provinces" Thoroughfare" （Jiu Sheng Tong Qu）("Wuhan", 2020), thousands of people had already crowded into airports and stations and had been transported to everywhere in China, further, the world. Hence, there is no doubt that the information asymmetry led to by bureaucratism caused the disaster, and the characteristics of city Wuhan accelerated the epidemic. It is worth mentioning that Wuhan promotes urbanization rapidly in recent years. There are old districts in the center of the city that have not been rebuilt yet, Huanan Seafood market is one of them. Moreover, the Bio-Safety Level 4 lab, the self-proclaimed “the safest lab” and “the proud of Wuhan”, was located in the suburb of Wuhan ("Wuhan", 2020). No matter where the origin of coronavirus is, newly emerging diseases are attributed to the extended urbanization (Connolly et al., 2020). At the first stage, citizens rushed into hospitals which caused superinfections, the Wuhan government lacked experienced leaders and issued ridiculous policies, health sectors overburdened, health workers were infected massively, and protective resources were extremely deficient. The pieces of evidence that western countries pointed the finger for the fiasco at “communist “China (Nelson, 2020) are true and the facts are crueler.

　 Figure1 ．Assemblies for the celebration of the upcoming Chinese New Year before the Wuhan was quarantined.

　2 ．2 Stage 2 ：Implementation of effective and feasible policies to reverse the situation

　Nevertheless, all issues in stage 1 were miraculously solved in stage 2 by the following strategies and policies. 2 ．2 ．1 Information asymmetry

　Authorities condemned the cover-up of the Wuhan government and forbidden any familiar dereliction after the lockdown. Wuhan Municipal Health Commissions has been reporting data of epidemic to the public since 31 December ("Wuhan municipal health commission", 2020). To help citizens check the data more convenient at any time, WeChat and Alipay set up the special column on their APP. Chinese people use these two apps every day, thus they can update the information in time by

　looking at the professional index, data, news, and analysis on the platform, the application of new media decreases the false information and rumors (Figure 2). Besides, the authoritative television stations repeatedly broadcasted the Covid-19 news and popularize knowledge of self-protection from coronavirus. For example, the channel of CCTV. Citizens who live in rural areas and do not have a digital device also instructed by government officers in that region. Though China has a large population base, every individual access the valuable information of the epidemic.

　Figure 2 ．Covid-19 data, professional index, news, and analysis on the WeChat.

　2 ．2 ．2 Bureaucratism and communist In considering the weak enforcement and disappointing outcome of the Wuhan government, China authorities decisively removed the province governor and nominated Ying Yong who had a military experience to be the leader on 13 Oct ("Ying Yong", 2020). Wuhan Prevention and Control Headquarters was established. Talents and elites with professional public health backgrounds were selected into the panel ("Wuhan municipal health commission", 2020). Officers who are reluctant in conquering the coronavirus will be punished. Furthermore, health workers serving in the People’s liberation army were distributed to the most dangerous positions and areas. Members of the Communist party were commanded to go outside, and support tasks related to control the epidemic so that ordinary people can safely stay at home. The greed, cheat, and bureaucratism then has been strictly restricted.

　2 ．2 ．3 Health sector overburdened The hospital (Huo Shen Shan) was built in 10 days to receive severe cases (Figure 3). Six days later another hospital named Lei Shen Shan was completed to receive more patients ("Coronavirus: The hospital built in a matter of days", 2020). With the policy of dividing the patience according to their conditions, patient with mild symptoms was allocated to mobile cabin hospitals. Wuhan had overall built 16 mobile cabin hospitals. Some of them are exhibitions, stadiums, and libraries (Nelson, 2020). The increasing health infrastructures gave enough capacity to receive patients, as much as possible.

　 Figure 3 ．The satellite imagery of Huo Shen Shan Hospital. The 10 days construction from a deserted land

　2 ．2 ．4 Shortage of resources

　For medical supplies, the authorities have implemented policies of constraining the export of medical commodities and domestic sale of these export share (Chu Kou Zhuan Nei Xiao) (Liu & Bennett, 2020). At the time of the spring festival, almost all private industries were shut down. Therefore, country-owned enterprises were required to open their industries, stop the vacation of their employer, and change their

　assembly lines to produce medical commodities. Moreover, social donation by the world’s largest population base generated contributions that can not to be neglected. Consequently, the medical replenishment rapidly arrived and prevented the further massive infection of health workers. For living essences, the government gave special certification to resources transport vehicles and their drivers, they were the only group of vehicles permitted on the road. Another contributable policy is that every province of China was allocated to help one corresponding city in Hubei Province (Dian Dui Dian). Resources of one province were given to help one city near Wuhan, which included most outstanding health workers, living essences, and food ("Wuhan municipal health commission", 2020). In stage 2, all provinces in China constantly lockdown to provide resources to Wuhan, this policy is risky because if there was another city in China that broken out a severe epidemic that was similar to Wuhan, there would be no resources to save another city, thus the most strict quarantine policies were applied to ensure this circumstance is not going to happen.

　2 ．2 ．5 Marginalized people

　Marginalized people, such as the homeless, detainees, unemployed, people with illness, and disabilities that relied on care and treatment, are the weakness of the city under Covid-19. If the government fails to arrange them properly, cases of the disease will be multiple (Nelson, 2020). In the first place, China announced a policy that employs financial subsides to give free treatment for every patient of Covid-19, no matter how much fee will be taken. Furthermore, the government officers investigated

　prisons and nursing homes, the oblivious corners of the city, and provided equal treatment to patients in there ("Wuhan", 2020).

　2 ．3 Stage 3: City Resumption and China’s “New Infrastructure” Before the city resumption, government officers firstly visited every family and property in Wuhan to make sure there was no infected person outside of the hospitals. Secondly, the government conducted disinfection on the whole city, included indoor spaces. Thirdly, the invention of the QR code materializes selective mobilities (Liu & Bennett, 2020). People whose QR codes illustrate green have the right to travel and transport. Last but not the least, every community provided mandatory free swab tests for residents in their administrative scoping, all Wuhan residents need to participate after the quarantine (Figure 4). As the figure illustrated, the workload before the city resumption is unimaginable. However, how to rebuild a city from a long-term lockdown is a question without any model reference or correct answer. According to scholars reported, the pandemic ends up an era and it begins another, the links between socioeconomic links are weak and innovation is extremely urgent (Lawreniuk, 2020). China has been expenditured a huge amount of investment in projects called the “New Infrastructure”, such as cloud computing, data center, 5G, smart computer center, and industrial internet ("Getting to know China"s new infrastructure projects", 2020). On the one hand, an enormous number of projects demand jobs, talents, materials, domestic trade of commodities and services, investments, loans, and cash flow. The right time of promoting the new infrastructure offsetting the economic effect of pandemic after the country’s isolation and retain

　sustainable growth ("Getting to know China"s new infrastructure projects", 2020). “New Infrastructure “plays the role of a tree and reproduces new nutrition to its branches, roots, and leaves. On the other hand, the era of smart cities and the digital economy contribute to the control and prevention of the pandemic as online human services reduce people’s physical contact. The operation of capital is behind the Covid-19, and the nature of capital is the relationship, labor exchange their value into capital assets through social reproduction (Nelson, 2020). China’s policy of saving every human life in free and lock down the country seems to be irrespective of the cost, the essence of these policies is to reserve the labor force, eliminate the threatens of their well-being, and give them conditions to produce capital as soon as possible (Nelson, 2020). Through enumerating the policies and measures, three stages demonstrated the process of “return to normal “and explain how Wuhan completely recover from Covid-19 in a short time. Covid-19 sophisticated and complicated the world, effective strategies are based on the decision making considering both macro and micro factors.

　Figure 4 ．Mandatory free swab test for all people in Wuhan after city resumption. 3 ．

　Reflection on human rights with Covid-19 Dr. Bilahari Kausikan put forward that the nature of the world is diversity instead of the university. He indicated that Western countries’ calling for human rights is aimed at seeking alliances with consistent interest (Kausikan, 1993), the notion guided by the United States is a typical example. However, the world is inclusive, countries characteristic cultures and different historical origin decide their own identification of humanities. For instance, the notion of “ 仁” (Ren) by Confucius. Therefore, countries must take reality and national characteristics into account when conquering pandemic. Covid-19 has given opportunities to the dark side of capitalism (Lawreniuk, 2020), policies enacted must be implemented in reality to benefit human beings rather than the propagation of human rights. Dr. Anitra Nelson mentioned that

　the United States, the exemplar of human rights and democracy, ended up with the world’s one-third cases of Covid-19, this view evoked me with Covid-19 preventing policies of US-China/Singapore. At the beginning of the pandemic, China and Singapore reacted to coronavirus by deciding a strict “stay at home” quarantine strategy to protect their people (Wang, Zou,and Liu, 2020).On the contrary, the United States described the quarantine as the loss of freedom and human right, they connived the publicly broken of quarantine and physically distancing measures, indulged states scrambled for resources with their compatriots. The relaxation of restriction offers convenience and a shortcut for the post-capitalist as it reunites the labor force by allowing people to go outside and return to work without protection and guarantee. As the result, 208695 deaths in America compares to 4739 deaths in China and 27 deaths in Singapore until 3 Oct 2020 ("See the latest data in your region - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center", 2020). As Dr. Bilahari Kausikan indicated “when the gap between what elite consider desirable and the general public considers comfortable grows too wide, democratic politics becomes dysfunctional” (Kausikan, 2016), this word suggested that human rights should not be the high moral calling by the minority of the society. China commanded soldiers, elites, government servants, and members of communists to go to the frontline of preventing Covid-19, this practice policies target at achieving the expectations of stabilizing people’s emotion so that people are willing to coordinate the work of government and will be energetically engaged into social reproduction after the epidemic. last but not the least, the geopolitics is increasingly tense under the Covid-19. Hence, to avoid

　another Cold War, emphasizing the diversity and inclusion of humanities is necessary for this tough moment, “We are all in this together” is not a slogan (Nelson, 2020).

　4 ． Conclusion In conclusion, every country is experiencing failures or successes in figure out practical strategies for Covid-19. Learning from each other and assimilating the strength into national practices is crucial than arrogantly disregard the emerging issues and be blindly confident about the Covid-19. Wuhan justified that Covid-19 is a disaster that will take away thousands of lives, regardless of consequences and spread will destroy global cities and lose time to reverse, the cost of preventing and controlling the epidemic is huge but worthy. Moreover, three stages in this paper demonstrated the coming of success depended on the highly effective coordinates between all social sectors and participates, policies considering the needs and interests of individuals decreased the social inequality and enhanced national cohesion. One"s life is significant than everything, its value should not be recognized as economic capital or victim of politics by capitalism and bureaucratism. Nevertheless, the human welling-being, equalities, justice of marginalized people, the workers, the refugees, and even the general populations are threatened in societies that have been emphasizing human rights, the shocking number of death cases have been increasing persistently. Therefore, it is the time that the world must look further, pay attention to the instinct and authentic needs of human rights, apply strategies that are valuable for people, and feasible to implement in a long-term perspective.

　5 ．

　References

　Connolly, C., Ali, S., & Keil, R. (2020). On the relationships between COVID-19 and extended urbanization. Dialogues In Human Geography, 10(2), 213-216.

　 Coronavirus: The hospital built in a matter of days. BBC News. (2020). Retrieved 7 October 2020, from https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-51280586.

　Getting to know China"s new infrastructure projects. News.cgtn.com. (2020). Retrieved 7 October 2020, from https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-06/Getting-to-know-China-s-new-infrastructure-projects-QfIOLy9khq/index.html.

　Kausikan, B., 2016. Dealing With An Ambiguous World Lecture IV: The Myth Of Universality: The Geopolitics Of Human Rights.

　Kausikan, B., 1993. East and Southeast Asia and the post‐cold war international politics of human rights. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 16(4), pp.241-261.

　Lawreniuk, S. (2020). Necrocapitalist networks: COVID-19 and the ‘dark side’ of economic geography. Dialogues In Human Geography, 10(2), 199-202.

　Liu, X., & Bennett, M. (2020). Viral borders: COVID-19’s effects on securitization, surveillance, and identity in Mainland China and Hong Kong. Dialogues In Human Geography, Vol. 10(2), 158–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820620933828

　 Nelson, A. (2020). COVID-19: Capitalist and postcapitalist perspectives. Human Geography, 194277862093712.

　See the latest data in your region - Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. (2020). Retrieved 3 October 2020, from https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region

　Wang, F., Zou, S. and Liu, Y., 2020. Territorial traps in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(2), pp.154-157.

　Wuhan. En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Retrieved 7 October 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan.

　Wuhan municipal health commission. Wjw.wuhan.gov.cn. (2020). Retrieved 7 October 2020, from http://wjw.wuhan.gov.cn/.

　Ying Yong. En.wikipedia.org. (2020). Retrieved 7 October 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ying_Yong.

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