The Chinese Communist Party objects to an independent scientific inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. It has punished people who are dedicated to the scientific pursuit of truth. It has dismissed any accountability for the initial outbreak and spread of the virus that has killed more than 230,000 people. Whenever truth threatens the CCP’s public image, vanity prevails.
In his famous speech to the 19th Congress of the CCP, President Xi Jinping said: “The party has united and led all the Chinese people in a tireless struggle, propelling China into a leading position.” He attributed China’s great international standing to socialism, specifically the Marxist theory of scientific socialism. But when scientific truth poses a threat to communist power, the comrades close ranks.
Any world leader capable of objective scientific thought would welcome an investigation into the cause of a pandemic. Not so China. The CCP is using every trick in the book to distract the world from the task at hand. It has cried racism, played victim, begged the authority of the World Health Organisation while denying access to independent scientists. The CCP is using tactical deception to buy time. Why?
Before the pandemic struck, killing hundreds of thousands and creating untold damage to future generations, the Chinese government was already losing face on the international stage. Its humiliation was self-imposed. It had banned foreign journalists who dared to criticise the party. It had black-listed foreign politicians who took issue with the CCP’s human rights violations. It had sent Muslims off to re-education camps. It had begun a fresh campaign to persecute Christians who refused to venerate the godheads of the communist state. It had introduced rules to make Chinese journalists submit to Xi’s ideology. It had threatened nations by militarising the South China Sea. It had embarked on a program of colonialism through the Belt and Road Initiative. It had bullied nations that dared to push back against its gross betrayal of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
It had manipulated multilateral ties to protect its developing nation status and had taken foreign aid that should have gone to the world’s most vulnerable states. And, after the COVID-19 pandemic took the lives of so many people, the CCP dares to deny a scientific investigation into its causes.
It has outraged humanity by denying our right to know how the coronavirus developed, the conditions that facilitated its transmission and how it spread so rapidly from mainland China to the world. These are basic questions and we deserve an answer to them. In a democratic country, the Chinese government would be held to account. It is the political system of totalitarianism that is protecting the CCP from public scrutiny.
No international body dedicated to humanity and democracy can allow the CCP to close its doors to an independent scientific investigation into COVID-19. And none can remain neutral in a time of crisis.
It is a credit to Australia that our Prime Minister has led the charge for an international probe into COVID-19. Scott Morrison favours free trade and big immigration, but he knows globalism has no future if it rests on government corruption and conformity to an immoral rules-based order. In a landmark speech to the Lowy Institute last year, he spoke on the importance of shared values in building international friendships. He observed the alliance between Australia and the US is a product of our shared dedication to liberty and liberal democracy. He registered disappointment that Australia had not played a more active role in establishing the values that underpin globalism, saying: “We cannot afford to leave it to others to set the standards that will shape our global economy. I’m determined Australia will play a more active role in standards setting.”
Ask and ye shall receive.
Morrison has been thrust into global leadership by the economic and human devastation wrought by COVID-19. The CCP has responded to his calls for an investigation into the pandemic with all the co-operative scientific spirit we have come to expect. CCP state media decided economic coercion should bring Australia to heel.
Hu Xijin, Global Times editor, described Australia as gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoe. China’s charming ambassador, Cheng Jingye, threatened economic retaliation against Australia — again. Courtesy of homegrown comrade Andrew Forrest, CCP former cyber spy chief and today’s consul-general in Victoria, Zhou Long, crashed a ministerial briefing on COVID-19. It would seem that protecting the CCP’s reputation is the first order of business, and rewriting history comes a close second. In a totalitarian state, the party comes before the people. Saving face matters more than saving lives.
The CCP has overseen the outbreak of two pandemics in less than two decades — SARS and COVID-19. In response to SARS, the international community asked China to improve animal welfare and slaughter practices. The apparent emergence of COVID-19 in the wet markets of Wuhan suggests the one-party state has not done its job. If that is wrong, let science reveal the truth.
In April, the CCP’s media platform, Xinhua News Agency, released a COVID-19 timeline designed to show the party was transparent and responsible. Earlier reports in The Lancet and from whistleblowers suggested the first case of the coronavirus was detected in early December. By January 2, 41 admitted hospital patients had been identified as having the virus. Sixty-six per cent of them had been exposed to the wet market known as the Huanan seafood market. However, the CCP timeline begins in “late December” when the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control and Prevention “detected cases of pneumonia of unknown cause”.
Questions about the timeline continue to disrupt the official narrative that the CCP was transparent and responsible in its management of the viral outbreak.
China has accused Australia of “ideological bias and political games” for requesting an independent probe into the coronavirus pandemic.
The world simply wants the scientific truth about what caused COVID-19 so we can work to minimise the risk of such viral outbreaks in the future. But the CCP will not stop playing Russian roulette with the health of nations.
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