Asia-Pacific Archive

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. China this week accused the United States of fomenting public hysteria over the Wuhan coronavirus, after the Trump administration banned recent travelers from China and warned U.S. citizens to avoid traveling there. The two countries have so far managed to share information on countering the outbreak despite political tensions in their relationship, but America’s sweeping travel restrictions could hamper that cooperation. As of Wednesday, fatalities from the epidemic had risen to nearly 500, the vast majority of which were […]

The rapid spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency last Thursday, is immediately testing the multilateral system’s capacity to respond to a pandemic. As of Jan. 31, the virus had infected a reported 9,720 people in China and around 100 more in 20 other countries and territories, killing at least 213. The deepening health crisis underscores that we live in an epidemiologically interdependent world, in which outbreaks anywhere can hopscotch around the world at jet aircraft speeds. Preserving global public health depends in large part on three things: timely and credible action […]