Turn back time to the end of 2019, and residents in Wuhan started to catch colds for unclear reasons. Nobody cared about it at the beginning. Soon, the flu spread to other cities, and more and more people were dying from the flu. We did not know the coronavirus would change our lives immensely, and it was the beginning. In 2022, our daily lives have changed dramatically. Wearing masks has become a part of life, and we are accustomed to quarantine and long-distance meetings. In addition, the coronavirus impacts international relations in terms of politics, economics, and ethnicity to widen the  gap between countries as well.

In politics, powerful countries use masks and vaccines as diplomatic tools to attract more allies and condemn each other for not controlling the pandemic well. At the beginning of 2020, the lack of masks made them a powerful diplomatic tool. Taiwan, which got a good reputation for combatting against Covid-19, used masks to help its allies and also other countries such as Lithuania and Japan, showing “Taiwan can help.” The US and China, used their vaccine to develop their relations and also blame each other as more responsible. The US blamed China for failing to investigate the origin of the virus, and China blamed the US for not controlling the virus, and failing in setting the correct policies to prevent the spread.  

In economics, the pandemic makes cargo delivery/logistics more difficult. People find it hard to work in crowded places, and the supply chain has been impacted. Because of COVID-19, a lot of factories were closed, and people try to do everything at home, which means the demand for certain goods also decreased. Supply and demand are declining at the same time, and the economy of the world will face trouble. Developing countries may fault developed countries for spreading the virus, and developed countries may blame for the unstable supply chain. 

In terms of ethnicity, different groups would have more conflicts than before. Asians would be discriminated against by Westerners because Westerners thought they were from China, and many Asians look similar to the Chinese. A lot of news showed how Asians were discriminated against in Western countries. Meanwhile, in Asian society, Western people were also blamed for not wearing masks, and the pandemic leads to more deep conflicts between different ethnicities.

To sum up, the pandemic causes many restrictions in our daily lives and international relations, we need more patience and more understanding to overcome this difficult time.

 

Written by Eddie C.

Edited by Ari B.