Commentary: Stay vigilant to Western slander against China's anti-COVID-19 policy

BEIJING, March 29 (Xinhua) -- As China's anti-pandemic fight has entered a critical phase, some Western politicians and media once again cranked their smearing machine to hurl mud at China's dynamic zero-COVID policy.

Some so-called Western experts nonsensically preached that the hasty full reopening by some Western countries should be replicated by others despite thousands are still dying from the pathogen there everyday.

In light of all the achievements and benefits China has reaped on its own land and shared across the world by unwaveringly enforcing the dynamic zero-COVID policy since the onset of the pandemic, any slander against the time-tested policy is suspicious and alarming.

As a country with a population of more than 1.4 billion, how China responds to the pandemic would ultimately decide whether the world could clinch the final victory in the global anti-COVID fight.

Under the guidance of its "people first, life first" principle, China has been adhering to the dynamic zero-COVID policy and have succeeded in protecting 18 percent of the world's population from the disease, and making outstanding contributions to addressing the threat facing all mankind.

Official data showed that China's anti-pandemic policy has protected people's lives and health to the greatest extent possible with COVID-19-related deaths and hospitalizations far below the global average.

Statistics from Johns Hopkins University showed that since the outbreak of the pandemic, China is one of the two countries which have kept its mortality rate lower than one death per 100,000 people.

With the expansion of vaccine coverage and continuous progress in anti-COVID drug research and development, the mortality rate has been showing a downward trend. China's dynamic zero-COVID policy has won it a precious time window with a relatively low cost.

Besides, the dynamic zero-COVID policy has helped China strike a fine balance between pandemic control and economic development.

Among major economies, China has been the first to bring the pandemic largely under control, the first to resume work and production, and the first to achieve economic growth. In 2021, China's GDP increased by 8.1 percent over the previous year. Its foreign trade exceeded 6 trillion U.S. dollars for the first time.

As the world's second largest economy, China has played a decisive role in stabilizing the global economy and resuming the COVID-19-disrupted supply chain.

As Bloomberg has analyzed, over the past two years, China's anti-pandemic policy "has prevented a huge number of deaths at home and ensured that everything from iPhones and Teslas to fertilizer and car parts continues to flow to the rest of the world."

Having dropped prevention measures, some Western countries are suffering a resurgency of the pandemic, which triggers rational reflection upon the rush to a full reopening.

"We all want the disruption and anxiety to stop, but we won't achieve that with policies that pretend the pandemic is over when it isn't," The Guardian argued in an opinion piece.

Over the past weeks, infections caused by the highly contagious Omicron strain has seen an exponential rise in some countries. In China, there is a reasonable possibility that the pandemic may find its way back. All this reminds us that, in face of the resurging pandemic, the dynamic zero-COVID policy, which features swift response and strict prevention, is still the most feasible effective choice to be made.

It is time for the China-bashing politicians and media to discard their arrogance and double standards, and view China's policy in a rational and objective manner. Only in so doing can they truly expect a full reopening and a speedy recovery from the pandemic.