Nigel Farage, leader of UK Brexit Party Photo: AFP

Due to the increasingly severe COVID-19 pandemic, the Christmas season this year is bound to be unusual in many Western countries. As the epidemic is out of control in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday said they "cannot continue with Christmas as planned."

It's frustrating not being able to enjoy the most important holiday. Some Westerners may have a need to vent their anger and desperation, and Nigel Farage, leader of UK Brexit Party, is one of them. Farage tweeted to accuse China for the "canceled" Christmas. However in China, many Western expats and some Chinese people are ready to celebrate the coming holiday season. 

A Twitter user said under Farage's tweet, "They're going clubbing in Wuhan for Christmas. Why can't this great country [UK] do that?" Indeed, why has China, the country stigmatized, blamed, and scapegoated by the West, largely returned to normal life? Why are the UK and many other developed Western countries sinking into another epidemic spiral? 

The reason is simple. The Chinese government and Chinese people have attached utmost importance to epidemic prevention. But until today, Western societies still haven't realized that being indifferent toward the coronavirus is the chief culprit of their mess. 

During the past few days, the US registered over 300,000 COVID-19 deaths; and the UK saw its highest daily surge in coronavirus infections, with nearly 36,000 cases on Thursday, while the country confirmed the second-highest number of COVID-19 fatalities in Europe (67,503). 

A newly identified variant of COVID-19 in the UK can be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the previous strains. Correspondingly, many countries, including Germany, France, Canada, and the Netherlands, have prohibited passenger air travel from the UK.

The British government should take all necessary measures to tackle the virus spread before it is too late. Nobody likes lockdowns, but they save lives. Is a lockdown worse than COVID-19 that kills? Perhaps the answer is always "Yes" to the politicians who care about only their political interests and see ordinary people as roadside grass. 

These politicians have never stopped misleading people since the very beginning of the pandemic. They avoided making hard decisions which might jeopardize their political interests. They are the reason why the pandemic is still fierce in the West. But they declined to see it squarely, and carry on their tricks of ducking their responsibility to others. 

UK politicians like Farage exploited the so-called universal values, such as freedom and democracy, to misguide their people. These, not China, are what led the UK to this place. 

Western-style governance has been at a loss as to what to do in the face of COVID-19. Demonizing China didn't help the West address the pandemic. Instead, it made Western people misunderstand China's measures, which have proven to be among the most successful ones, and refuse to accept similar moves. 

An old proverb goes, "No pain, no gain." Some Western politicians want only gains without undergoing pain. There is no such thing. This attitude and corresponding actions will only have Westerners suffer more pain.