Yes, CCP is responsible
I realise some of you may be tired of reading about the pandemic, and you guys should probably read something else. However, I can’t stop thinking about how just one political party, just one leader have been able to stop the whole world in its tracks. I can’t fathom the extent to which having money can get you out of trouble. Although, I am also not surprised that existing systems of all types from political to financial have failed, not surprised the havoc a virus can unleash, and most definitely not surprised that people continue to prioritize politics over science.
Getting back to the problem at hand, this is not the first time the world has faced a pandemic, and unfortunately it likely won’t be the last either. However, what’s most infuriating is that this was an entirely preventable pandemic! Although, it has not been 100% confirmed it’s highly likely that the virus has started from a wet market selling wild animals in the poorest of hygiene conditions, for the second time!
Back in early 2000s, another coronavirus (it’s a family of viruses, not just one virus) called SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory System) was traced to Yunan province with the first reported cases in the Guangdong province in 2002. In case some of you think this is a conspiracy against China, this was confirmed by Chinese scientists working under the CCP. However, this SARS virus didn’t cause a pandemic, killing only 774 people worldwide, a miracle number by Covid-19 standards.
Some influenza strains come from birds and pigs, HIV from chimpanzee, while the ebola virus most likely originated in bats. Covd-19 is suspected of originating from a bat, then a pangolin before finally entering humans, the first reported inter-species virus. Though this method is rare, given China’s massive unregulated and unhygienic wet markets which also sells wild animals including illegal wildlife trade, it was a matter of ‘when’ rather than an ‘if’.
While wet markets exist in other parts of the world such as South East Asia, west Africa, and northern South America, China is unique in including trade of legal and illegal wildlife trade that include endangered species such as pangolins, tigers and rhinoceroses. This all began when the Chinese Communist Party could not feed its population during the 1970s because of its tight controls over animal farming. In 1978 when the party finally gave up its control, the animal farming industry was dominated by large players, while some peasants began its own small-scale animal farming that mostly included animals such as snakes, bats, rats and turtles. Later when the party changed the law and classified the wild animals as natural resources, it encouraged and sparked the creation of Chinese wet markets.
The wide variety of wild life animals kept under unhygienic conditions increased the likelihood of one sick animal leading to a virus outbreak. Despite being a marginal contributor to China’s GDP, the industry has significant lobbying prowess while promoting wild life meat as tonics for body-building, sex-enhancing and disease-fighting (oh, the irony).
After the inevitable SARS outbreak, CCP temporarily banned wildlife farming. This ban was lifted after just 5 months on 54 animals including civet cats (supposed source of the SARS outbreak). During the current Covid-19 pandemic, China rushed to ban consumption of wildlife animals. However, it still allows breeding of wildlife animals for traditional Chinese medicine, as well as fur and leather.
China is also heavily criticised the world for its handling of the issue during the early days. It refused to let WHO representatives examine the issue or any sort of international aid, and was offended at proactive measures of travel restrictions by countries. Its sentiments were also echoed by the director general of WHO. When reports of xenophobia broke out, Chinese nationals made a public plea for support.
The poor Chinese response did not stop there. When the US led by the “morbidly obese” Donald Trump decided to pull funding from WHO, China had a chance to step in and lead the world. After all it already had the experience in handling the virus months before it began spreading in Europe. When CCP sent medical equipment to a bunch of European countries it often proved either faulty or was followed by an invoice. Furthermore, it continued to respond harshly to any criticism of its handling of the virus. In fact, when French officials shared their criticisms, China’s embassy shared a post on its website that France had abandoned its elderly nursing homes to die from either hunger or disease. As a result Paris summoned the Chinese ambassador for an explanationn (read sharp retort). The country also issued an unusual public statement on one of Beijing’s highly sensitive issues. Francois Heisbourg, senior advisor for Europe at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said “To make sure that the Chinese were getting our meaning, we actually went out of our way to piss them off.”
The message China sends to the rest of the world is clear, their rise as the primary superpower is inevitable, and they don’t care about their perception anymore.
It now depends upon the world leaders and their electorate to decide how to effectively handle a country’s leadership which favours its murderous grip over power above anything else.
