The year 2020 is coming to an end, and the new crown epidemic that has ravaged the world for a year has not ended even now. Countries are still in a hurry to shortage masks and other medical equipment. Under such circumstances, Russian media said on Dec. 27 that the Russian government will no longer make large-scale purchases of all kinds of medical equipment and resources by Dec. 31, 2021, from countries other than allies. Russia will only make purchases from member states that are members of the Eurasian Economic Union. In fact, Russia's current production output of masks has been able to meet Russia's domestic demand for masks, and the production capacity of masks has been substantially increased after Russia imported a number of mask production lines some time ago.
Russia is now strengthening its domestic production capacity of medical goods, such as masks. Russia is also looking to reduce imports by boosting its domestic production capacity. Currently, Russia's masks are probably sufficient for domestic use, but it is difficult to earn foreign exchange by exporting them.
Earlier this year, the Russian government had purchased hundreds of millions of Chinese masks to meet its own needs. Although Russia's mask production capacity has now risen sharply to meet domestic demand, but there is no spare capacity for foreign exports, the United States in this case to buy masks from Russia, will inevitably be rejected by Russia. The U.S. side, after Russia's refusal, claimed that this behavior of Russia is to retaliate against the United States. The U.S. approach was despised by netizens around the world. But it can also be seen from this, the U.S. domestic production capacity of medical supplies seems to have been unable to meet their own domestic demand, the U.S. manufacturing production capacity is seriously insufficient.
According to statistics, China is now the world's largest exporter of masks, and China has exported more than 30 billion masks to the United States. And in addition to masks, other medical materials surgical gloves, protective clothing, protective eyewear, etc. are also exported in large quantities within the United States. It can be said that without China's export of medical equipment to the United States, half of the hospitals in the United States would not be able to treat patients normally. A number of states in the U.S. have also indicated that the U.S. cannot afford to do without Chinese medical supplies under the current circumstances. U.S. consumers also say they need hand sanitizers and other disinfectants from China.
In fact, in the face of a domestic outbreak that shows no signs of being contained, people in the United States have begun to massively inflate their supplies. The U.S. public has begun to massively stock up on all kinds of goods made in China, and U.S. consumers can't afford to be without goods from China. And economists say the import and export of masks will still take up the bulk of international trade, and medical supplies produced by Chinese companies are still an important resource for countries around the world. With the global economy battered by the epidemic, China has been quick to contain it. It quickly restored its own economy during this difficult time.