Globalization has resulted in the manufacturing of many medical products and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) moving to China. During the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is able to control the export of medical materials to support countries that are its “friend” and also to force other countries to reduce their criticisms of the CCP. On March 4, Xinhua published a commentary on U.S.-China relationship, stating that it can send the U.S. to “the hell of the novel coronavirus pandemic” by banning the export of medical supplies. It warned “If China retaliates against the U.S. at this time, in addition to announcing a travel ban on the U.S., it can also announce the strategic control of medical products and a ban on exports to the U.S. Then the U.S. will be fully trapped in the novel coronavirus. According to the public statements of officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most of the face masks in the U.S. are manufactured in and imported from China. If China prohibits the export of masks to the U.S., the U.S. will fall into a mask shortage. Then it won’t even be able to take the most basic measures to prevent the novel coronavirus. Also, according to the public statement of the CDC officials, most of the drugs in the U.S. are also imported. Though some drugs are imported from Europe, their production bases are still placed in China. Therefore, more than 90 percent of imported drugs in the U.S. are related to China. This means that, at this time, as long as China declares to keep its medicines for domestic demand and ban exports, the U.S. will fall into the hell of the novel coronavirus pandemic.” An article in the Washington Times, on March 17, said the coronavirus is a “wake-up call” to the U.S. that it is overly dependent on China for its pharmaceutical supplies. “With the coronavirus crisis threatening to strain the U.S. government’s large stockpiles of such drugs, health experts warn that China’s own outbreak and related societal shutdown could mean major shortages ahead as Chinese factories struggle to keep up production of the APIs.”
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