Last week, I received a package at my home in New York from a kind Chinese friend in Beijing. It contained medical personal protective equipment, including highly sought-after N95 respirator masks (not all masks are created equal: some only protect people from exhaling the virus, rather than inhaling it — the N95 protects from both). “It’s easier to get PPE here,” my friend explained, noting that he had been horrified to hear about the dire shortages in the US (as well as other countries such as the UK) — and had sent the package in sympathy.
As I gratefully distributed masks to some vulnerable neighbours and medical workers that I know, I realised that this was a symbolic moment. First, and most obviously, it highlights how the geopolitical order is changing. A couple of decades ago — say, during the 1997 Asian fiscal crisis — aid, along with pity, tended to flow from west to east. This is now being reversed.
Second, the issue of PPE is exposing a much bigger question for a country such as the US: how far should it rely on the free market to supply basic goods? And how far should it tolerate (or encourage) state intervention in a time of crisis?