The mobility pattern of Chinese people through the Silk Road route in the past seems to have stayed the same. This mobility route may look similar to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.
By
AGUSTINA PURWANTI
·7 minutes read
REUTERS/ALY SONG
Women wearing face masks wait for buses at a bus stop in Xianning of Hubei province, the epicentre of China\'s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, (25/3/2020)
Since the beginning of this year, the global community has been busy with a new coronavirus or SARS CoV-2, which is the cause of COVID-19. At present, the effort to fight against SARS CoV-2 has been intensified among the global community, including in Indonesia and through to the remote regions. The reason is, after more or less three months, the chain of this virus is not cut-off, but instead it increasingly spread throughout the world.
When we look deeper, this virus spreads from east to west, from Asia to Europe and America. Referring to the daily report released on 21 January, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), until 20 January, 2020 SARS-CoV-2 has just become an epidemic in the Asian region. The first four countries to report the COVID-19 case were China, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. The number of cases as of 20 January, 2020 was 282 cases.
However, data published by WHO on 23 March, 2020 shows that 332,930 people across the world have been tested positive for COVID-19. The pattern of the spread was different from the beginning of this epidemic. The number is still moving up. The latest WHO data as of 26 March at 10 a.m., shows that COVID-19 has infected 480,446 people worldwide.
Now, Europe is the region with the most cases.
Most COVID-19 findings are in China (81,782 cases), followed by Italy (74,386 cases) and then the United States (US) with 69,197 cases. Trailing behind in the fourth place was Spain, followed by Germany, Iran, France, South Korea, Switzerland and England.
Now, Europe is the region with the most cases. Around half of the total findings of COVID-19 cases in the world are confirmed in this region.
AFP/GREG BAKER
A worker pushes a cart past a screen showing a photo of the Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone, at the venue of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on April 26, 2019. - China\'s Belt and Road projects need to be transparent and fiscally sustainable, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on April 26 in apparent acknowledgement of growing concerns about debt linked to his global infrastructure initiative.
Silk Road
The pattern of the spread of COVID-19 shows a similarity with the ancient trade route before Christ (BC). Chinese traders in the 1st century BC traveled approximately 6,000 kilometers to Europe, passing through various countries connected through the Silk Road. It is called the Silk Road because silk became the main commodity traded at that time.
Referring to the publication of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), silk is a textile produced in ancient China at that time, developed according to Chinese tradition around 2,700 BC. Silk became a high-value product and became an exclusive item for the Chinese Empire, even the production process was kept a secret. Some examples of extraordinary silk works are in a tomb in Hubei Province, China.
Silk produced by China was also used as a diplomatic gift and began to be traded. It was first traded to close neighbors, and began to become China\'s leading export commodity, under the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 BC).
The pattern of the spread of COVID-19 shows a similarity with the ancient trade route before Christ (BC).
In the 1st century BC, silk began to be traded to Europe to the Roman Empire and was introduced as a symbol of luxury. China managed to trade silk more broadly.
In the process of traveling to Europe, China uses maritime routes. One of the areas traversed at that time was Indonesia through the Malacca Strait. In its journey, not only silk was traded, spices also became a superior commodity at that time. This is where Indonesia has a role in the Silk Road because the spice commodity comes from the Indonesian island of Maluku.
Not only Indonesia, but India, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Egypt are some of the countries that were passed on the Silk Road journey. Until finally, the Silk Road is not only a trade route, but also a path of civilization, exchange of knowledge and culture. The naming of the Silk Road actually only appeared in the 19th century by German geologist Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen.
Kompas
Stranded tourists from Germany wait for a shuttle bus to transport them to the airport to board a chartered flight back to Germany on the fourth day of the lockdown imposed by Nepal\'s government amid concerns of the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kathmandu, Nepal March 27, 2020.
Trade patterns
After several centuries, close relations between China and the European region are still established. This is evidence through the trade balance of the two entities. Referring to the publication of Statista, the European Union ranks first in China\'s export trading partners. In 2019, China\'s exports to European Union countries amounted to 17.2 percent of China\'s total exports that year. Then followed by the US, ASEAN countries, Hong Kong and Japan.
In line with that, China is the main supplier of imported goods in the European Union. The European Trade Directorate\'s publications show that 18.7 percent of EU imports of goods were supplied by China in 2019.
The US is the second supplier of imported goods in the European Union, with a contribution of 12 percent. Then the UK as the third supplier with a contribution of 10 percent of total EU imports. Vice versa, China is also the third European Union export destination country with a contribution of 9.3 percent of total EU exports in the same year.
Perhaps, the trade activities that China had started in ancient time led to China today being recognized worldwide. Its success in exploring the world at that time continued to be adopted until now. It is evidence with the talks that China will create a new Silk Road.
In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed the economic belt of silk roads and 21st century maritime silk routes called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (Kompas, 15/5/2017). This is aimed at remembering the efforts of the predecessors who have opened intercontinental routes and is intended to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.
AFP/STR
This aerial photo taken on March 10, 2020 shows an empty street in Wuhan in China\'s central Hubei province. - China said on March 10 the epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak Hubei would relax travel restrictions to allow healthy people to move within the hard-hit province.
Human Movement
It is not only trade inherited from the Silk Road in ancient times, science and culture also drive the continuation of the human movement. Basically, humans always move from one place to another. Moreover, globalization and technological sophistication that have also been adopted to improve transportation make it easier for people to move.
The increasing standard of living of the people may also increase their mobility, even between countries, including by China and Europe. One of this human movement is through tourism.
China, a country with the largest population in the world with increasingly skyrocketing economic levels, allows for high mobility. In line with the movements in ancient times that gave birth to the silk road, so is the journey of today\'s Chinese population.
According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), there are 158.6 million global tourists visiting China in 2018. Most of the 146.01 million tourists come from East Asia and the Asia Pacific.
The virus is not only deadly to human, but also to the world economy and civilization.
While Europe is the second largest region to visit China. In the same period, 6.53 million European tourists came to China or 4.12 percent of the total world tourists.
Vice versa, referring to the Statista publication, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the European Union tends to increase. In 2012, the number of tourists from China who visited the European Union was 5.29 million people. As the population grows, the standard of living and transportation progress, the number of Chinese visitors to Europe reaches 14.48 million in 2018.
What\'s interesting is that in the first half of 2019, one of the cities in China that made the top 10 European visitors was Wuhan City. Today, Wuhan is the epicenter of the COVID-19, which is being fought by the global community.
Looking at the patterns of trade and mobility between residents in Asia and Europe, it is not surprising that the spread of the new coronavirus has finally peaked on both sides of the world. In the east is China and in the West is Europe.
It is undeniable that this massive human movement carrying SARS-CoV-2 is now rampant in all parts of the world along with its spread through human interactions. What is needed now is togetherness to fight this deadly virus. Because the virus is not only deadly to human, but also to the world economy and civilization. (KOMPAS RESEARCH CENTER)
