The shipment was 40 tonnes of medical equipment, including swab kits, N95 ventilator face masks, personal protective equipment for doctors and nurses and coronavirus test kits. These deliveries of vital equipment, donated or purchased, are happening across south-east Asia, Europe, North Africa and the United States (more than 80 countries in all) as China - hit first by the coronavirus, but no longer hardest hit - steps into the breach as a good global citizen. Chinese COVID-19 aid is moved from arriving planes to a hangar in Jakarta. It's an exercise in soft power but governments across south-east Asia, some of them desperately under-resourced, have welcomed the assistance with open arms despite concerns about the long-term cost. Evan Laksmana, a senior researcher at Jakarta's Centre for Strategic and International Studies, says it's "certainly" true the staged delivery of masks and test kits from China was a PR exercise designed to boost Chinese influence, as well as an effort to save lives.

It was also about boosting the standing of the Indonesian government, which has fumbled, obfuscated and delayed delivering a competent response. Venezuelan and Chinese officials repeat the PR exercise as a medical team arrives from China in La Guaira, Venezuela. Credit:AP "If this was just about assistance, we wouldn't need press conferences and welcoming ceremonies," Laksmana says. "For the time being we are still in crisis mode. The assistance and the supplies we bought help for now in fighting the pandemic. As long as there are no strings attached then things are fine for now. Later, maybe the blame game will come," he adds, referring to the idea that once the pandemic is under control, China could face a reckoning for its early handling of the virus. 'If this was just about assistance, we wouldn't need press conferences and welcoming ceremonies.' Evan Laksmana

Loading As the disease spreads across the globe and thousands more people die, the CCP's gamble is that perhaps grateful citizens facing mortal peril simply won't care what the source of their aid is. But maybe they won't be grateful. There is a contest underway for control of the narrative on the spread of the coronavirus, according to Sophal Ear, a Cambodian-American associate professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, and "China is milking it for all it is worth". The US and China have been in a contest for influence over the political systems and economies of south-east Asian nations for a decade or more. The strategic contest for control of the islands and natural resources in the South China Sea and the flow of goods and services through these vital waterways has grown sharper too. As Ear puts it, at present "this is about filling the vacuum of a crippled America, unable to help the world while China reaches out and delivers. Of course, let's not talk about how we got here and how a system in place to report precisely this type of virus, following SARS, got completely co-opted because Chinese Communist Party leaders didn't want bad news."

The long-term impact of COVID-19 on the strategic balance of power in south-east Asia is as yet unknowable. Filipino political analyst and author Richard Heydarian says China is trying to drive a wedge between the US and its key allies in south-east Asia and around the world. He cites his own country, which has already given ground to China on South China Sea territorial claims despite having international legal judgements behind it, as a perfect example of how China is using the crisis to project and increase its soft power. "Up until early or mid-March, President Duterte was dismissive of people worrying about the pandemic," Heydarian says, and the president had defended China's handling of the outbreak. Then, while the country had only a relatively small number of cases, Duterte declared a lockdown on the main island of Luzon, home to the capital Manila, and "you wondered what was going on".

"Then suddenly we had 3000 test kits [from China], then hundreds of thousands of test kits, and now it's doctors. Loading "Either it’s a power grab [by Duterte], which I don’t buy, or the situation is really bad and it's not reflected in government data. The Philippines failed at the preventative stage, in monitoring and contact tracing." Heydarian says the US has done a "horrible job in terms of projecting leadership" and criticises US President Donald Trump. China has taken advantage of the US response - and a two-month head start - to mobilise manufacture of much-needed equipment. But that will change, he suggests, as huge manufacturers such as General Motors ramp up production of ventilators and other medical supplies.

"China may have been doing a good job of co-opting and pressuring elites in the region. But in terms of public opinion, I don’t think this [aid delivery] is helping China. Nothing short of an apology, accountability for public officials and even compensation – only that may dent the backlash," he says. Loading To date there have been five countries - Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore - that have reported between 1000 and 3000 cases, though the government responses have ranged from world-leading (Singapore) to shambolic and indecisive (Indonesia). Laksmana says governments in the region have "understood that things are bad in the US too". "We aren't looking to the White House now. But at the working level [embassies in the region], some assistance has been forthcoming."

Certainly Trump's America First approach, coupled with the dire situation in the US, has allowed Beijing to steal a march in what some have dubbed "face-mask diplomacy" and become the global leader in providing equipment where and when it is needed most. The US State Department this week detailed the aid it has shipped to ASEAN states. The paltry total of $US18.3 million ($30 million), which includes support to ramp up lab testing, infection control, help set up emergency plans and train rapid responders, isn't exactly headline-grabbing compared to China's recent efforts. It's worth remembering, though, that the US has provided $US3.5 billion in health assistance to ASEAN nations in the last two decades. Supporters of the US as a counter-balance to China's growing regional influence are hoping the American contribution can still increase. But will it be too little, too late?

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, a well-regarded elder statesman, made a searing and widely noted observation this week. "The world has greatly benefited from America's leadership in situations like this for decades. If America is in a different mode, well, we will get by and I think other configurations will eventually work out, but it would be a loss," he told CNN's Fareed Zakaria. Members of a Chinese Anti-Epidemic medical expert team in Milan to help fight COVID-19. Credit:Getty Images Coming from the understated Lee, it was the political equivalent of a hand grenade onto the lawn outside Trump's West Wing office, underscoring the pandemic's capacity to upend structures that have been in place for decades. It's worth remembering that the contest for influence and power in south-east Asia is multipolar. Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea have also shipped medical supplies. These are countries deeply invested in the US keeping skin in the game. In the absence of leadership from the Trump administration, they seek to step into the breach.

The World Bank has warned the pandemic will smash growth forecasts, particularly for developing countries in the region, from nearly 6 per cent in 2019 to as low as -0.5 per cent in 2020. Loading University of Malaya politics professor Edmund Terence Gomez sums it up like this: "On the one hand everyone is blaming China, because the outbreak happened in Wuhan and they clearly tried to suppress it. "Of course, people will appreciate the help they get ... whatever China can offer, of course it will be most welcome. But you have to balance that against the impact on economies. "When this crisis is over, whenever that will be, we will all be impacted by a serious economic crisis and mass bankruptcies ... when confronted with all of these economic problems, when it hits home that we are where we are because of it first emerging in China, I wonder what the backlash will be."