PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — Thousands of sick, disabled and other sick people have lined up at Pier T over the past week, hoping to board a Chinese hospital ship to receive free medical treatment.
Some of those lucky enough to be hosted told Radio Free Asia that it was “a miracle” to receive medical services not available at local hospitals aboard the Silk Road Ark, a Type 920 hospital ship run by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, in town for just seven days.
After receiving its last patients on Tuesday and holding a farewell ceremony on deck with PNG Prime Minister James Marape, the ship set sail on Wednesday, having completed a 220-day humanitarian mission, during which it visited a dozen countries in Latin America and the South Pacific.
“My daughter Margaret is a sick child,” Kimberly Yanogen, a PNG resident, told RFA on Tuesday. “I would have paid 1,000 kina ($231.47) or more if I had taken her to the public hospital or private clinics here. »
She said the doctor performed a physical exam on her daughter and advised her how to manage her condition.
“I am very happy to receive this advice for free,” she said. “I would like to thank the Chinese government for sending this ship here. They have made our access to the service and our lives easier,” she said.
For the Papua New Guinea leg, the final tally was 5,493 patients seen and 339 surgeries performed, Chinese Ambassador to PNG Yang Xiaoguang reported in a speech at the ceremony.
“It’s a visit that deepens friendship,” he said. “As a Chinese saying goes, “more exchanges will bring families and friends closer.”
Soft power victory
Humanitarian visits by the Silk Road Ark and other Chinese hospital ships, which often include services such as surgeries, constitute highly effective soft power diplomacy for Beijing, Graeme Smith, an associate professor in the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University, told RFA.
“It’s interesting in that it’s something that China can do, whereas the United States and Australia probably can’t do it because of their risk appetite,” he said, noting that complications after surgery could arise and the hospital ship would not be there for post-operative care.
“So if you’re in a country where the immediate medical care isn’t really there to provide that kind of support, you’re opening yourself up to responsibilities that I think Australia and the United States wouldn’t be willing to take on,” he said.
The US Navy also sends hospital ships on goodwill missions, and they perform surgeries, but a visit to the comfort of the USNS in Trinidad in August last year saw two “critical surgeries” performed among 46 procedures, compared to 339 at the Silk Road Ark’s Port Moresby stop.
Smith recalled his encounter with the Peace Ark, another Chinese medical ship that visited Vanuatu as part of a previous mission.
“It’s not just about the soft power of being able to offer these services, but also the soft power of ‘we’ll train people from your country to be doctors’, and to be honest I don’t think America in particular, or Australia, is doing enough,” he said. “It’s an easy victory.”
Missions by Chinese hospital ships in the Pacific, however, “risk undermining health sovereignty by increasing reliance on external providers,” wrote Malika Knapp, a fourth-year student at the Australian National University, in an article published in March by the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
“Medical assistance and defense goals are closely intertwined, with free health care serving to normalize a foreign military presence while advancing China’s geopolitical goals,” Knapp wrote. “But from a health systems perspective, the benefits are immediate but fleeting. »
Long queues
On Tuesday, the last day the Silk Road Ark was performing medical services, residents at a local market told RFA that people even slept overnight on the dock in an attempt to board the ship.
“I want to take my husband for an eye exam on the Chinese ship,” a resident identified only by her first name Grace told RFA. “I heard that all medical services are free and there are a lot of people waiting in line for a very long time, but people are sleeping outside the door to be early enough to get a pass.”
Some waited for long hours to be seen, but told RFA they left the dock empty-handed.
“I’m so worried and disappointed,” said Sherina, who had come to visit her husband in hopes of having a lump removed. They were told to go to Port Moresby General Hospital, or PMGH.
Enno Awoi, a diabetic, and her husband, immobile since 2003 when he suffered a stroke, had been queuing since 1 a.m. Tuesday. She was given medication to manage her condition and they referred her husband’s case to PMGH.
For Junior Pule, who suffers from high blood pressure, filling out the admission forms was so difficult that he sought help from RFA.
But residents who participated in the Silk Road Arch tour told RFA they were happy to be able to help.
“It was a good experience for me,” Ayisha Gizoria, a final-year dental student at the University of Papua New Guinea, who volunteered at the triage station before boarding, told RFA. “As volunteers, we come to do the work for free. We don’t get paid. We do it because we have the heart and empathy to help the sick around us.”
Ronald Jack, who was a security guard, said he was happy to see thousands of sick people from the country coming to seek medical help. He told RFA he wanted to thank the Chinese government.
While there were many positive reviews, many wrote on social media that it was “not comforting” to see families queuing overnight for basic medical services provided by a foreign entity, saying it exposed the fact that their own government could not provide these services.
Providing free medical services is “pretty effective, the caveat being that sugar is effective,” Smith said. “So they stay there for five days and then you don’t see them for another few years.”
But regardless of the mission’s effectiveness in terms of long-term health outcomes, Smith said it was “money well spent in terms of building goodwill and doing something that Australia and America are probably not willing to do.”
Edited by Charlie Dharapak.