Sharri Markson: How China is taking strategic advantage of pandemic
Evidence is mounting Beijing is using the coronavirus crisis to advance its position, writes Sharri Markson.
Opinion
Don't miss out on the headlines from Opinion. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- China is ‘cashing in on COVID chaos’: US envoy
- China evokes Abraham Lincoln in defence of its COVID handling
Fresh from destroying evidence of the deadly transmissibility of COVID-19 in order to stockpile medical supplies from around the world, China is now going one step further in its ghastly international conduct.
US officials claim there have been a wave of cyber attacks where Chinese hackers have infiltrated universities and pharmaceutical companies in order to steal intellectual property related to research on COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and testing.
The FBI said that this espionage could even jeopardise the development of a vaccine and treatment.
It is understood that Australian agencies have the same concerns as the US, as does the UK where Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab condemned a surge in cyber attacks by “hostile states”.
Australia has not been as vocal as the UK or US, but Home Affairs boss Michael Pezzullo admitted in a hearing last week that there have been “malicious actors” at play.
The evidence is now mounting of China’s repeated failure to conduct itself as a responsible international citizen at every stage of this coronavirus outbreak.
The despicable assault on Australian beef exporters this week, merely for Australia’s request of an independent inquiry, is further proof of that.
Yet, in Australia, the arguments against China’s cover-up of the virus are seen through the partisan prism of US politics, as if somehow holding China to account for its negligence would exonerate US President Donald Trump of any condemnation in relation to his handling of the outbreak in the US.
This simply isn’t the case.
Not only does the anti-US sentiment gloss over the hard facts about China’s cover-up of the virus, it lays bare the bias of the partisan ABC and Nine newspaper journalists who have been prosecuting China’s case.
It also exposes their lack of international interest and failure to follow world news, because the concerns about China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak extend far beyond the United States Republicans.
Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso has levelled allegations against both China and the World Health Organisation in Japan’s parliament. He said if China had not insisted to the world it had no pneumonia epidemic than the rest of the world would have taken precautions.
African nations have summoned Chinese ambassadors to express their fury over coronavirus-related discrimination in Guangzhou, while France also called in the Chinese ambassador, Lu Shaye, to complain about claims made against its treatment of elderly citizens.
The UK has said it can’t go back to “business as usual” with Beijing, while the EU’s foreign affairs head said Brussels had been “a little naive” about China.
Yet, in the face of this international condemnation of China’s conduct, Chinese authorities and its mouthpieces in Australia think it has no case to answer — only the US has.
Instead, Chinese leaders think they should be commended for how they have handled the coronavirus outbreak.
Seriously.
The Chinese Consulate in Auckland issued a lengthy media statement on Thursday, titled “Reality Check of US Allegations Against China on COVID-19.”
Much of it is delusional fiction that would take a particularly creative politbureau to dream up.
It maintains that China has been “applauded and fully recognised internationally” for its handling of the coronavirus.
“The Chinese government, in an open, transparent and responsible manner, has shared with the world updates on the disease and its response experience, and has pursued international co-operation. What China has done is highly commended by the international community.”
It is as absurd as it is hilarious.
To address the allegation that China’s delay in alerting the WHO to the coronavirus led to its spread globally, the embassy stated: “Reality check: China took the most stringent measures within the shortest possible time, which has largely kept the virus within Wuhan. Statistics show that very few cases were exported from China.”
Very few! It claims “China is a victim of disinformation’’.
It also claims Chinese expulsion of American journalists was in “response to the US long-term oppression of Chinese media in the US’’.
It also runs the argument that “there is no such thing as ‘state responsibility’ of the first country to report cases’’.
“HIV/AIDS was first detected in the US in the 1980s and has since spread to the whole world, but the international community has never demanded that the US take responsibility or pay reparations.”
It’s a fantastical point of view.
The United States Ambassador Arthur Culvahouse Jr gives a more realistic picture of the chain of events when he says that Beijing created a global pandemic through its “gross negligence, obsessive secrecy and brazen dishonesty”.
He then argues that China has used the pandemic to advance its geostrategic interest with a “shocking new vigour” while the rest of the world is focused on dealing with the health and economic consequences of the coronavirus.
It’s very strong language but, when you look at China’s actions, he is clearly right.
There is the hacking of research institutions working on a vaccine, the destabilisation in the Asia-Pacific region, the activity in the South China Sea, the destruction of virus samples, the hoarding of medical supplies while denying there was any epidemic, and intentionally hurting Australia’s economy via tariffs and trading suspensions at a time when we are already suffering economically in large part because of their COVID-19 cover-up.
It is now clear that China is taking strategic advantage of the pandemic.
Whether or not the virus leaked from a laboratory, whether or not it came from the wet market, Chinese President Xi Jinping is exploiting the coronavirus to assert China’s own dominance while the rest of the world is on its knees, beset by a virus China denied was transmissible.