Yanzhong Huang

Yanzhong Huang is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he directs the Global Health Governance roundtable series. He is also professor at Seton Hall University's School of Diplomacy and International Relations. He is the founding editor of Global Health Governance: The Scholarly Journal for the New Health Security Paradigm. He has written extensively on global health and China.

A guard stands at the gate of the Shanghai Public Clinical Center Shanghai, where the coronavirus patients are quarantined, in Shanghai, China February 17, 2020.
Governance

A Virus Hunter's Struggle for Respect in Post-COVID China

by Yanzhong Huang

Zhang Yongzhen's recent ordeal is an interplay of personal, cultural, institutional, and political factors

Doctor Li Tongqiang walks along a road through the village of Jianhua.
Poverty

China's Emerging Welfare Crisis

by Yanzhong Huang

Signs are surfacing of an impending crisis in the country's medical insurance system

President Joe Biden shakes hands with President Xi Jinping
Governance

Two Geopolitical Rivals, One Health

by Yanzhong Huang

The Biden-Xi summit did not advance U.S.-China health security cooperation

Two women relax in a cafe behind a sign with large letters spelling out Beijing, in a shopping area in Beijing, China, on July 14, 2022.
Governance

The Short-Lived COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate in Beijing

by Yanzhong Huang

Social media backlash may have influenced officials in China's capital who walked back vaccine requirements

A man wearing a face mask rides a bicycle on a bridge in front of the financial district of Pudong covered in smog during a polluted day in Shanghai, China on November 22, 2017.
Environment

How Does China's Pollution Control Shed Light on Its Pathogen Control?

by Yanzhong Huang

The zealous pursuit of pollution or pathogen control is built into a top-down, state dominated policy structure

A woman holds a small bottle labeled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in front of displayed China flag in this illustration taken, October 30, 2020.
Governance

Why Mass Vaccination in the West Could be Bad News for Chinese Leaders

by Yanzhong Huang

To narrow the immunity gap, China could be forced to prioritize its domestic vaccine needs

COVID-19 has seen its share of protest and political theater—like one in London on August 9, 2020, to call attention to Brazil, a country also subject to conspiracy theories over the virus' origins. The photo shows a crowd of performance artists demonstrating with costumes and fake blood splashed everywhere. REUTERS/John Sibley
Governance

How the Origins of COVID-19 Became Politicized

by Yanzhong Huang

Where the coronavirus came from is no longer a scientific question—thanks to narrative spin, agendas, and misinformation

Residents wearing face masks queue for nucleic acid testings in Wuhan, the Chinese city hit hardest by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, Hubei province, China May 16, 2020. The photo shows what appears to be a family through the hole of a plastic barricade. REUTERS/Aly Song
Governance

Ten Million Tests in Ten Days

by Yanzhong Huang

Inside Wuhan’s massive COVID-19 testing campaign, which China is expected to repeat elsewhere—just not with antibodies

Masks are seen on a production line manufacturing masks at a factory in Shanghai, China January 31, 2020. New York City alone could face a shortage of millions of masks in the coming months. The image shows a human hand with two bright orange bandaids on the thumb and middle finger picking its way across a huge pile of masks. REUTERS/Aly Song
Trade

A Truce in the Trade War Will Save American Lives

by Susan Shirk, Yanzhong Huang

Immediately lifting all tariffs on personal protection equipment will enable doctors and nurses to safely do their work

A woman wearing a mask to prevent the coronavirus is reflected in mirrors in Seoul, South Korea on February 24, 2020. This is an amazing image of a woman walking by a display of spherical mirrors, the sort of which someone might place on a corner to see a wide angle. She is wearing a black face mask and is reflected in all the mirrors. REUTERS/Heo Ran
Trade

Coronavirus and the World Economy

by Yanzhong Huang

A pandemic longer than a year may lead to business failures, mass unemployment, and a world thrown into global recession

Volunteers in protective suits disinfect a railway station in Changsha, Hunan province, China, February 4. The photo shows several people clad head-to-toe in protective suits fogging what is presumably a disinfectant in thick clouds. REUTERS/cnsphoto
Migration

Panicky Responses to the Coronavirus are Dangerous—Here’s Why

by Yanzhong Huang

Fear of the virus may spread faster than the virus itself, a potential threat to health, liberty, trade, and the economy

Chinese men work at a brick production plant in Xian, northwest of China's Shaanxi province on April 27, 2005. The photo shows a man pulling bricks off a stack where they were presumably kiln fired and placing them into a stack in the foreground. the overall color of the photo is brick red, suggesting that the dust is everywhere.
Trade

Tackling Occupational Diseases in China

by Yanzhong Huang

With 200 million or more workers exposed to unsafe conditions, holding employers accountable remains a daunting task