A member of parliament from Guangdong province once warned that the government's anti-epidemic plan still had many gaps, potentially threatening an outbreak.

The warnings issued by legislator, doctor Taiwei, expert in HIV transmission at the No. 8 People's Hospital in Guangzhou last year, were justified by what Hubei Province is going through, where the outbreak of Covid-19 broke out, thousands of people died and spread to more than 80 countries and territories.

Thai doctor called for amendment of China's infectious disease laws to tighten quarantine regulations, quarantine, ensure transparency and clarify what local authorities should do when the disease occurs. takes place. According to him, the new law should also force local governments to hire more health workers and set up emergency reserves.

"The capacity of local governments to secure financial resources to cope with serious disease is currently insufficient," he stressed.

Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged Covid-19 as a "test for the management system" and the country needed to "overcome the weaknesses and limitations that were exposed after the epidemic." .

But Hubei Province and Wuhan City are by far the most criticized by the public for their initial reaction to Covid-19.

Experts say the crisis points to systemic failures in China, when local governments do not have the resources or political authority to cope with the epidemic. Hubei is suffering a debt of up to RMB 2,000 billion (US $ 288 billion) before the disease and cut nearly 2% of health care costs last year.

According to Thai doctors, local disease control centers have long been hungry for capital and human resources. "In some provinces, disease control committees have been cut off staff and financially secure, even merged into other departments," he said.

In addition, Beijing's tight control over local governments has also made the situation worse, experts said.

"For most Chinese officials at all levels, they are more interested in the opinion of their superiors than the welfare of ordinary people," said Victor Shih, a Chinese political expert at the School of Strategy and Global Policy at the University of California in San Diego, comments.

The financial situation of Hubei Province is weaker than the national average. According to the latest statistics, Hubei's first 10 months of 2019 revenue reached US $ 42.55 billion, up 2.9% compared to the previous year, with US $ 35.43 billion earned from land sales. But they are tasked with cleaning up the Yangtze and funding the International Military Olympics in October, which requires an estimated $ 28.8 billion in infrastructure construction capital.

Although total spending increased by 7% to USD 87.79 billion, Hubei health care expenses decreased by 1.7% to USD 7.66 billion.

The total debt of Hubei is currently 288 billion USD, equivalent to nearly 4,900 USD / person, above the national average of nearly 3,900 USD.

Hubei financial tensions were evident when the new outbreak broke out. Residents say Wuhan hospitals do not have the facilities to handle such a large number of patients.

"In general, Hubei is one of China's most indebted provinces relative to GDP and financial income," said Shih from the University of California at San Diego. "Local governments have no discretionary spending power and the epidemic just makes them spend more money."

The Chinese government has allocated more than $ 14.4 billion in additional funds to deal with Covid-19, while promising to pay 60% of patients' medical expenses. But finance is not the only problem, especially in the early stages of an epidemic.

"Excessive optimism leads to lax control measures," said the Thai doctor. "Controlling the source of infection in the first place is the most effective way to prevent the disease but it has not been done well."

According to Thai doctors, the right to know what is happening of the people should be added to future laws, and local authorities should have the right to issue warnings about diseases and actions.

Transparency is always a big problem in China. Doctors first discovered nCoV was reprimanded and asked to stop spreading rumors. One of them, doctor Ly Van Luong, died of an infection.

At the beginning of the outbreak, Chinese social media was flooded with criticism against local officials, but not the central government or President Xi Jinping. Many provincial officials have been dismissed and citizens are encouraged to report those officials who neglect their duties.

But according to Tang Guang, chief of epidemiology at the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local officials have to deal with more than just focusing on the task of preventing the virus from spreading. "They have to consider politics, they have to consider social stability, they have to consider economic issues," he told the Global Times last month.