Comparing Global Health Diplomacv Between China And The U.S.:the Case Of 2014 West African Ebola Epidemic Response

As the world's second largest economy,China has become an important player in the global health diplomacy.Since the 21st century,China's global health diplomacy has expanded from unilateral and bilateral channels to a more diversified and comprehensive model.However,compared with the western developed countries,China's global health diplomacy is still in its infancy in terms of system,management,human resources and technology,and still has great potential for improvement.The 2014 West African Ebola epidemic was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola in history,causing major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption.By comparing the response of China,an emerging donor,and the U.S.,a traditional donor,during Ebola outbreak and in the post-Ebola period,this paper demonstrates the characteristics and differences of the two countries' global health diplomacy in terms of strategy,mechanism,mode and capacity.This paper also endeavors to explore the transferability of the U.S.experience in health diplomacy to China,so as to advise China's establishment and improvement of its own global health diplomacy model.While most existing literature focus on the analysis of health diplomacy theory and policy on a macro level,this paper combines the theory with practice,the Ebola response in this case,to deliver an evidence-based and action-oriented analysis.In addition,as most existing Ebola case studies only focus on the response during the outbreak,this paper also include the post-Ebola effort to provide a more comprehensive picture.Through the comparison and analysis,the paper has following conclusions on the global health diplomacy of China and the U.S.First,as to health diplomacy strategy,the U.S.has established and continued to improve a holistic strategy that integrates infectious disease prevention and control into the national security since 1994.However,China has not established its national global health development strategy so far.During the Ebola epidemic,China developed respective plans for each round of aid,but lacked the overall strategy to guide the whole operation.Second,in terms of mechanism,China's Ministry of Commerce is mainly responsible for health assistance,while the Ministry of Health is more likely to be involved in technical assistance.China's lack of specialized aid agency such as USAID to oversee aid operation tends to cause barriers to cross-sectoral coordination.Third,in terms of mode,both China and the U.S.have adopted bilateral and multilateral health cooperation to accommodate their own interests.However,the U.S.government is able to better leverage non-governmental organizations(NGOs)to fulfill its health diplomacy strategy.Lastly,in terms of capacity,the U S.has greater advantages in biotechnology and human resources.On the basis of the comparison,six suggestions have been proposed to advise on China's global health diplomacy.First,China should establish its global health strategy as soon as possible to guide the overall aid operation.Second,China should empower health department with more voice in health diplomacy and establish specialized foreign aid agencies to promote the cross-sectoral coordination.Third,China should leverage the resources and expertise of NGOs in global health diplomacy.Fourth,China should take advantage of its own health development experience to advise on other developing countries.Fifth,China should take more responsibility in global governance and decision making.Sixth,China should improve its human resource mechanism to train and retain more talents in health and international relations.