China’s Compliance to International Health Law and Its Implication to Global Health Security

Abstract

The Covid 19 pandemic presented a defining challenge to public health and global security. The outbreak of the pandemic in China and its global implications raised persistent doubts of states’ compliance to international health laws. The pandemic therefore, provides an opportunity for us to ascertain the extent to which China adhered to the International Health Regulations. Though a great deal of experts have scrutinized Chinese public health policies in the aftermath of the pandemic, China’s compliance to the 2005 International Health Regulation and its implication to global health security remained unclear. The analysis is largely derived from the Global Health Security-GHS Index and other primary legal texts. The GHS Index represents the first comprehensive unit of measurement of global health security across 195 countries that are parties to the 2005 International Health Regulations. The outcome of the analysis exposed significant gaps in China’s compliance to international health laws. It also indicates that, though international health laws provide useful guidance to prevent, respond and manage pandemics, they are implemented in an ad hoc manner and generally have few tools at their disposal to enforce compliance. China’s failure to timely and adequately discharge its duties under the International Health Regulation prior to and in the wake of Covid 19 shows that the international community needs a new legal enforcement mechanism to ensure that states act promptly, transparently and effectively to protect the world’s population against pandemics. The challenge of a lack of statutory enforcement mechanism is insurmountable and it remains uncertain what the future holds for global health security.