Research On China-Japan-ROK Public Health Cooperation Under The Background Of COVID-19

The public health cooperation among China,Japan and ROK sprouts in 1972,when China resumed its legitimate rights and interests in the World Health Organization.Then the three countries began to participate in the public health cooperation led by the World Health Organization.The outbreak of the SARS epidemic in 2003 made China,Japan and ROK realize the importance of public health cooperation.The three countries started to participate regional public health cooperation and established an independent trilateral cooperation mechanism.The cooperation has entered the initial stage,but the means of cooperation are relatively simple.In 2009,the three countries made a breakthrough by signing a memorandum on food safety,and the public health cooperation began to develop in all fields.The deepening stage of public health cooperation between China,Japan and ROK began in 2020,when China officially notified the claim of "Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia",and then the epidemic broke out on a global scale.China,Japan and ROK have carried out all-round,multi-field and in-depth public health cooperation during the epidemic,showing a high level of public health and better cooperation prospects.The public health cooperation between China,Japan and ROK has achieved certain achievements and established a relatively perfect inter-governmental communication mechanism,but there are still deficiencies.The level of cooperation is relatively single,lacking the participation of social forces,and the field of cooperation is relatively narrow,mostly focusing on the field of infectious disease prevention and control.The cooperation is mainly a crisis-driven model with limited motivation.These deficiencies reflect that the current public health cooperation faces certain problems and challenges,so the cooperation also needs to be adjusted and constructed accordingly.In order to better explore the problems,challenges and paths choices of public health cooperation among China,Japan and ROK,this thesis,based on the theory of security international cooperation,combined with the particularity of public health cooperation,discusses the need for common security interests as the basis and premise to achieve public health cooperation.This paper also proposes security benefit distribution,cooperation mechanism construction and collective identity as three basic variables that affect public health cooperation.Under the guidance of theory,combined with the analysis of cases such as the three-country cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic,this thesis proposes the problems and challenges faced by China-Japan-ROK public health cooperation.First,the distribution of security interests in public health cooperation between China,Japan and ROK is obviously divided.The particularity of public health cooperation affects the three countries’s balance of cooperation benefits,and the dispute over cooperation dominance has intensified the conflict of interests of the three countries.Secondly,in terms of cooperation mechanisms,the construction of targeted public health cooperation mechanisms such as emergency response and coordination among the three countries is limited,and the lag in the process of community building makes the three countries lack institutional guarantees for public health cooperation.In addition,the lack of cultural identity of the three countries hinders the formation of collective identity,and this lack of identity is also reflected in the differences in security concepts among the three countries.Although there are problems and challenges,there are also common interests in the field of public health among the three countries,and carrying out public health cooperation still meets the requirements of the times and the development of the three countries.This thesis attempts to give the path choice to strengthen the cooperation between the three countries.First,China should play a greater role in the public health cooperation among China,Japan and ROK.Secondly,the public health emergency and coordination mechanisms should be established with reference to the experience of the European Union and the World Health Organization to a certain extent,and a multi-level cooperation mechanism including the central government,local governments and social forces should be built Finally,the interdependence and people-to-people exchanges and mutual trust among the three countries should be strengthened,and a consistent awareness of public health security should be established to promote the formation of the collective identity of the three countries.