Big government: The fight against the African Swine Fever in China

Abstract

The African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak in China triggered a series of issues such as false drug and vaccine sales, insufficient pork supply, and panic among pig farmers. As the largest pig breeder in the world, China suffered and continues to endure the damages and other impacts brought by this fatal porcine disease. However, the country performed well in the process of preventing and controlling the spread of the ASF, which was confirmed and appraised by the Director-General of the World Organisation for Animal Health. To hold the epidemic under control, China needs to focus on three key factors: the powerful government with the sole leadership of CPC to allocate all the resources available, referred to hereby as big government; comprehensive measures to effectively prevent disease propagation; and recover pig production capacity with firm and resolute determination to eliminate the disease. These elements have contributed to China’s success in overcoming many difficulties in the past and worked well so far for preventing ASF. However, shortcomings, such as untimely responses, low tolerance for mistakes, surrender of local responsibility, lack of shared value focus, etc., should be overcome in the big government mode, which may serve as a non-negligible part of the whole reference for other countries.