From the covert 19 special and next on d w. The global corona crisis you can find more Information Online in fact e. W. Dot com and on t. W. Social media channels. Its late march in serbia and a plane has just landed at belgrade airport. This is no ordinary flight on board a medical teams and tons of equipment to help fight the coronavirus they flown in from china and they get a heros welcome the president himself is here. Right. Serbia isnt the only place welcoming to live reads like these. Chinese supplies have also been arriving in hungary as well as the Czech Republic slovakia austria greece spain canada even the u. S. Has been turning to china for supplies. So whats going on just a few weeks ago china was the epicenter of the Coronavirus Crisis the place where the outbreak began because its suddenly gone from victim to savior well serbias Prime Minister seems to think so just take a listen to this interview that she gave just recently with Chinese Television when we identified the firth identified the 1st case of corner virus in serbia the fear of the peoples republic of china was the 1st to approach are turned off for help the support of china saves lives in serbia. I really i mean the through. The procedure through direct more human to this steel friendship between china and serbia once all this is behind us after all the negative coverage associated with the outbreak in china that kind of praise is a stunning turnaround and it puts beijing back on track in a much longer term project of building up its image and its influence around the world that china has been working quite hard even before the pandemic to improve its reputation globally and undercut the reputation of democracy and demonstrate that shrine is system of governance is more effective now that process looks set to accelerate to intensify i do see this as. Something that. Well history. With the rising china and how its going to impact on the world i do see this wire as as a moment when decisions need to be laid in choices choices made in europe about whose side are you on were going to look at 2 Big Questions is china really coming to the rescue and what are those choices that the west is going to have to face. Back in Central Europe another of those chinese shipments is coming into land this time in hungary. Prime minister for talk or ban is here the plane is packed with medical supplies to help fight the outbreak and or inspected eagerly. Following events in budapest hes d. W. Funny fashion. Without or by can portray himself as a strong leader with the method im here for you i will protect you with the help from china 60 tons of supplies arrived last week from china and more is through arrive. Chinas interest in hungary is nothing new or bomb hosted premier league china in budapest 2 years ago hailing major investment in the country its part of a Bigger Picture of chinese outreach in central and Eastern Europe agreed thats proven controversial. About 2012 and. China came up with this idea of creating something that they called back then 16 plus one which was 16 Central European Central EasternEuropean Countries from the baltics the balkans and china would directly trade directly talking directly sort of interact with usenet and definitely theres real concern brussels that this is in fact an attempt to kind of weaken the European Union and to deal with countries individually or in smaller blocs much for his part hungarys victor or baron seems more than willing to side. Stepp the European Union hes just provoked outrage by adopting sweeping open ended powers to rule by decree in response to the coronavirus its something that seems more reminiscent of chinas form of governance in 2015 he declared that instead of following in the footsteps of liberal western democracies hungary should rather take a look at the liberal Success Stories like china therefore its not a secret but rather reale politics that holder is china as a desirable partner has for the Chinese Government itself its reacted angrily to western critics suggesting that it supplies of medical equipment anything other than the true istic. Now not come to this you want to whats this all dont lose your d. S. That would your mom. Pretty easy use top diplomat has been voicing some doubts about chinas motives which was that burrell has warned about what he referred to as a battle of narratives in an online post he wrote china is aggressively pushing the message that unlike the u. S. Its a responsible and reliable partner you must be aware that theres a geo political component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the politics of generosity armed with facts we need to defend europe against its attractors the implication was clear dont take chinese help necessarily at face value and watch out for attempts to undermine facts. While chinas state media promote a chinese way in dealing with the virus investigative journalists or the nonprofit outlet pro publica reported finding thousands of fake social media accounts pushing pro china narratives and senior figures in beijing have been spreading explosive claims like suggesting the us army brought the virus to china. Weve had a Foreign Ministry spokesman called charlie t. N. Who has put out conspiracy theories that the virus was brought to china by u. S. Soldiers at the military gains in in china there in the autumn and then he floated to syria that perhaps it was you know caused by talian weve always seen just information from china but we very rarely seen senior chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman. Basically fabricating lives despite that many european leaders are going out of their way to thank china for its support in fighting the outbreak right up to the president of the European Commission herself we are grateful for support from china the Prime Minister announced that china is ready to provide 2000095 mosques 2000000 surgical masks and 50000 testing kits these can be shipped to europe immediately this support is highly valued and we are grateful for it those warm words are even more remarkable when you think about the context theres been a lot of tension recently within europe about individual countries not doing enough to help each other out the Commission President also spoke about that recently and this time her language was not warm at all. When europe really needed to be there for each other to have many initially looked out for themselves when europe really needed an all or for one spirit too many initially gave only for me response. Since then there have been more examples of e. U. Countries helping each other out for instance with German Air Force planes being kitted out early to tell your patients. That theres major uncertainty about how far e. U. Member countries are prepared to pull together to meet the enormous costs of the crisis just one of many challenges to european unity. It needs to be much more. United and caring among and between the states it needs to really really pull out the stops to help other countries it started to do that a bit better very slow start the things have picked up absolutely. Need to go more and want more in that direction nice to take responsibility for its own medical situation needs to create much better systems to out europe it seems clear that the less europe pulls together the more theres an opening for china to come and fill. A gap thats also been left in part by america. Under President Trump the u. S. Is becoming less interested in old alliances and more inclined to go to america 1st its come at a cost to relations with europe. Obviously we have a lot of issues that are contentious between the u. S. And our european allies. Certainly that creates an opening for china i think many chinese see the trumpet ministration is the gift that keeps on giving it has really created the the potential of the opportunity for china to step up so what happens next a lot depends on whether donald trump wins reelection in november a defeat by joe biden would likely mean a return to stronger ties with traditional allies have the honor of speaking to all of you for both the power see towards alliances i think would be more cooperative we would be looking to work with allies to push back against china in some areas meanwhile more and more voices from both left and right in america are calling for the u. S. To decouple its economy from china to reduce the enormous amount of ties that have built up over the last couple of decades. Thats already happening to an extent with american moves to cut the chinese telecoms giant oil away out of its future mobile Data Networks but it could now go further. In the United States now recognize that weve become too dependent on china for example make our netizens so you will see this sort of decoupling limited sectors but not a simple relation of the u. S. And chinese economy back here in europe china analyst d. D. Kirsten tatler sees more profound. Choices ahead do you see this as the. Tipping the bend and all of history wish the rise of china and how its going to impact on the world i do see this virus as a moment when decisions need to be made and choices choices. In europe about whose side are you on we should be asking ourselves hard questions about globalization about how safe is. How unsafe is globalization under conditions all. Misty divergent political systems perhaps globalization is something that only works when theres political agreements when theres agreement about. How society should be. For now of course mostly to surround the well theyre too busy fighting the virus to take time for such peak fundamental decisions but when the outbreak is behind us theyll have some serious thinking to do. Culture. Hair. Superfood stylish style icon. What oh theres. A lifestyle youre a. Little more. Each the whole town is my story. Of the people who have passed on to me feel. Good. To and knives to me. I am not too dumb to come in a lease on my secrets. I have monta my cities days for centuries and accompanied my country through its finest alleys until the day i mean im. Not tied down to. The stance of a fool and. A neighborhood that consists entirely of gloating hows that. A model for the future