One of my colleagues is a teacher from Computer College of Sanxia University. When I learned that he stayed in the US during COVID-19 pandemic, I asked him the local conditions there. He said, “Awfully terrible!” Their food, money and daily supplies were in shortage. One of my family members who lives in east coast of the US told me that the capital city of their state was like a ghost city, and shelves in stores were all empty. He believed that the US would also carry out lockdown measures.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, some leaders in the US and other countries neglected it. They stayed indifferent to what happened in China or even criticized China for what they were endeavoring to fight against the pandemic, which led to the final breakout of the pandemic in the world. The pandemic was spread without any country borders and humankind was its victims. Under no circumstance and no period should the pandemic be called as Wuhan Virus or Chinese Virus. Though a little bit worried during the pandemic period, the university never made me panic with their quick response. Chinese government reacted with the quickest speed, therefore the pandemic got under complete control soon. However, I began to worry about my family and friends in the US.   

　As an American who has been living and working in Yichang, Hubei Province for many years, I was (still) greatly astonished and annoyed by those unprofessional and biased speeches of some so-called “leaders” in some Western countries especially in the US. Those speeches were only disguises for their decision mistakes for not getting themselves ready to fight the pandemic and for confusing the public. Their opinions of attributing the pandemic to China had no grounds to stand on itself. They were only meaningless nonsense. 

　My family and friends all opposed to these opinions and we all respected China and the Chinese people. Here I would like to utilize this opportunity to express my sincere wishes and support to the Chinese people. In addition, I also wanted to voice some opinions, that is, many Americans had been respecting China all the time and they had never blamed China for this pandemic. They were still hoping that they could travel to China after the pandemic. Many Americas saw through the disguise and evil minds behind all those spreading of terrifying news. Don’t let our joy be robbed by a small number of ignorant people in the world. 

After the breakout of the pandemic, to effectively stop the spread of the virus, the Chinese government quickly took measures to block cities and put in quarantine those infected and suspected to be infected. However, some Western countries accused China of violating humanity for these actions. If some people, especially those so-called leaders in Western countries, thought that efforts Chinese government had been done, in the most important Chinese festival that had the highest economic values, were to violate humanity, they did not know what true leadership was. Based on reliable data, the Chinese government immediately took measures to block related cities so that they successfully protected millions of people from being infected by the virus. This was not violating humanity; however, these efforts were full respect and protection of humanity and they displayed the great leadership of the Chinese government!    

After the breakout of the pandemic, China shared related information with the World Health Organization and other countries. That means, other countries had almost two months in advance to prepare themselves for the prevention of the COVID-19. However, what made us upset and angry was that leaders in some countries completely neglected the virus and kept accusing China. Their behavior reminded me of those stupid emperors and officials who kept playing violins when Rome was in big fire. I wanted to apologize to Chinese people on behalf of some blind Americas. Most of American people respected China and its great Chinese people. Some anti-Chinese thoughts of people in the US and other countries made me agitated and I was ashamed of those actions and words. I wish all people in the world not blinded by fear of the pandemic and actively join China in fighting against the virus.  

During the pandemic period, the university gave me full respect and care. I was greatly touched by the active cooperation of the Chinese people with the government, the full efforts of all social circles in preventing the COVID-19 pandemic and the devotion of medical professionals in taking caring of all patients regardless of their nationalities. I felt greatly honored by joining my Chinese friends, colleagues and foreign students who stayed in Yichang at its tough period to fight against the crisis. After the breakout of the pandemic, I was in the middle of the crisis. However, I had never felt fearful because every day we were well communicated with real-time information about the pandemic and were supplied with enough food, water and all necessities. The Chinese government was trying their utmost to make our life comfortable and stay safe both physically and psychologically. The government staff, medical professionals and police forces were all working day and night in the first frontline of fighting against the pandemic. They put our health and safety in the highest priority and my deep respect and gratitude to their devotions was beyond words.   

No man is an island, entire of itself. Our destiny is closely linked. Therefore, let’s join hands to fight against the pandemic and to comfort those ignorant and fearful souls. Let’s march towards victory for China and the whole world. All bygones will be bygones and God will bless us!