The ongoing coronavirus crisis provides a valuable window on how each country must incrementally overcome the fundamental weaknesses of its governance system and avoid making the same mistakes in emergency management repeatedly. Without such efforts, China may succumb to similar delays in uncovering another epidemic in the future. Without strengthening its capacity for intergovernmental collaboration, the United States may face similar confusion in responding to other large-scale crises.

Shui-Yan Tang is Frances R. and John J. Duggan Professor of Public Administration in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California

Brian An is an assistant professor of political science and public policy in the Department of Political Science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From fall, 2020, he is joining the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Public Policy as an assistant professor of public policy.