A resident receives COVID-19 nucleic acid test in Ruili, Southwest China's Yunnan Province on October 29, 2021. The city which shares a border with Myanmar has been testing residents daily this week. Photo: VCG

The US has reopened its borders to people from 33 countries on Monday. Travelers must be fully vaccinated and provide results of a negative coronavirus test. The purpose is to promote economic recovery and boost the tourism industry. Most countries on the list are those in Europe, yet the continent is once again back at the epicenter of a new wave of the pandemic. The situation in the US is equally severe. 

The model - money over life - is now going on in the US. From a positive perspective, the US is exploring a way for humanity to survive through the public health crisis. Such boldness - being unafraid of death - is not entirely meaningless. But the approach will almost certainly function with a price: More lives will be swallowed by the virus. This is Social Darwinism with a solemn and stirring sense. 

As a socialist country, China must not do the same. We might as well neither praise nor trample on US approaches. Instead, we could be a pragmatic bystander, waiting for the US to charge to the forefront and use its lives to fill the trenches against the novel coronavirus. There will be a lot of uncertainties ahead, and perhaps there will be a fierce battle. If Americans are willing to go ahead and explore the way, we are incapable and have no moral excuse to stop them.

While watching, the Chinese people must step up the development of special medications, step up the optimization of dynamic zero-case measures, and effectively control the cost of organizational epidemic prevention. We adhere to humanitarianism, but a dynamic zero-case policy should be economically effective in the future, with advantages outweighing that of a full lifting of a travel ban, to be sustainable in the long run. We cannot be idle for a moment. We are racing against all kinds of complexities and urgency. We need to start from a static zero-COVID policy to reach the goal of US reopening its borders first and at a lower cost. 

The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn