Infographic: China vs United States in pandemic response

China's State Council Information Office issued a white paper titled "Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China's Actions and Stance" on April 30, 2025.

Drawing from its contents, this infographic compares the approaches taken by China and the United States in three key areas of the pandemic response: information release, mutual aid, and participation in the World Health Organization and global contributions.

----China

China built a rigorous, professional, and efficient information‐release system to ensure timely, authoritative updates.

On December 31, 2019, the Wuhan municipal government began issuing legally mandated epidemic bulletins and gradually increased their frequency.

Beginning January 21, 2020, the National Health Commission (NHC) posted daily nationwide case counts on its website and social-media channels.

By May 31, 2020, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism and the State Council Information Office had held 161 press conferences, during which more than 490 officials from over 50 departments answered over 1,400 questions from domestic and foreign media.

The NHC’s Chinese and English websites, together with its social media, maintained dedicated sections for daily updates, policy explanations, domestic progress briefs, virus-prevention guidance, and rumor dispelling.

----United States

On March 3, 2020, the CDC stopped publishing key COVID-19 data—including daily test tallies—citing concerns over accuracy, forcing the public to rely on nongovernmental trackers (e.g., Johns Hopkins University).

In April 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci revealed in a CNN interview that the White House had repeatedly rejected public-health proposals such as social distancing.

By mid-April 2020, confirmed U.S. cases surpassed 660,000; with the presidential election looming, the administration declared the “peak” behind us and rushed to reopen the economy.

After the 2020 election, although federal policy shifted, partisan conflict fueled vaccine conspiracy theories and public skepticism, resulting in only 67.2 % of Americans being fully vaccinated by June 2022—the lowest rate in the G7 and 59th globally.

2. "Mutual Aids"

----China

Even as U.S. hospitals were overwhelmed, China shipped 80 tonnes of medical supplies (1.8 million masks, 10.3 million gloves, etc.), as acknowledged by the U.S. president on April 1, 2020.

In March–April 2020, China provided US $12 million in supplies; Zhejiang Province alone sent 11 million masks to 12 U.S. states, including long-time partner Indiana.

----United States

On February 8, 2020, the U.S. State Department pledged US $100 million in aid to China—which, to date, has not been delivered.

----China

On March 12, 2020, China and the WHO co-hosted an international briefing on China’s COVID-19 response, earning positive feedback.

In 2020, China held over 70 exchanges on prevention and control with ASEAN, the EU, the African Union, APEC, CARICOM, SCO, and more than ten countries (including the U.S.).

In the first half of 2020, China shared diagnosis, treatment, and control protocols in three foreign languages with 180+ countries and over ten international/regional organizations.

China’s online COVID-19 center—offering training videos, technical guides, and research updates—attracted over 200,000 global visitors.

China is the only country to host multiple WHO expert missions on its soil and to repeatedly brief WHO on its virus-origins tracing, contributing the largest share of data and findings worldwide.

Early in the pandemic, China donated US $50 million to the WHO (in two batches) and helped raise funds for the WHO Solidarity Response Fund.

Since 2020, China has deployed more than 3,000 medical workers in 176 teams to 57 countries and supplied 4.6 billion protective suits, 18 billion test kits, and 430 billion masks to 153 countries and 15 international organizations (including the U.S.).

----United States

In March 2021, the U.S. adopted an “America First” vaccine policy—reserving doses for domestic use—which led to massive waste, discarding 82.1 million doses (11 % of federal distribution) between December 2020 and May 2022.

The U.S. failed to deliver promised vaccine aid abroad and ran discrediting campaigns against Chinese vaccines.

It accused the WHO of overstating COVID-19 fatality rates and promoted hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as “wonder drugs” without solid evidence, while concealing data that misled both WHO and other countries’ analyses.

Between April and May 2020, the U.S. government attacked WHO warnings, suspended WHO funding, demanded “major substantive improvements” and “independence from China,” threatened to freeze funding and reconsider membership, and on May 29 announced withdrawal over unmet reform demands—only to reverse that decision in 2021 and then, on January 20, 2025, announce intent to withdraw again citing WHO’s pandemic handling and alleged Chinese influence.