By Michael Sobolik
Friday, March 27, 2020
When it comes to the global coronavirus pandemic, the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is acting as both the arsonist and the
firefighter.
The first response of China’s authoritarian government
was intimidation. The CCP actively suppressed knowledge of the virus’s
existence in Wuhan by silencing physicians and prohibiting medical
professionals from publishing findings that could have saved lives. When the
party could no longer deny the viral outbreak, it dithered in December and
January as cases of the disease in Wuhan and neighboring cities skyrocketed,
caring more about its monopoly on power than the welfare of its people. And in
February, as the coronavirus spread throughout the world, foreign minister Wang
Yi pressured neighboring countries to keep travel with the People’s Republic of
China (PRC) open for reputational reasons. Now, however, China is seeking to
whitewash its failings — and blame the virus on other nations, such as the
United States.
That historical context is important. According to a
study at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, had China’s
political leaders acted quickly, they could have lowered the number of cases
within their own country by 95 percent. Instead, the party’s political paranoia
turned a localized viral outbreak into a global crisis, with over 22,000 deaths
reported worldwide. According to the International Monetary Fund, the global
economic impact of coronavirus will approximate that of the Great Recession of
2008, and possibly surpass it.
That, however, is only if the figures we now see coming
out of China are accurate. Given the CCP’s reputation of altering figures for
its political benefit, the death toll and economic impact are likely far worse.
As it stands, the institutional failure of China’s
government is stress-testing the health-care systems of every nation on earth.
Italy’s hospitals are overwhelmed, and the United States is on pace to run out
of ventilators in four weeks. In Iran, one person is dying every ten seconds
from COVID-19.
Amid this crisis, the CCP today is hard at work — not to
right its wrongs, but to rewrite the past. The party is waging a multi-front
propaganda campaign that shifts the blame for coronavirus to the United States,
while claiming that China’s response bought time for the rest of the world to
prepare. The Chinese government is also presenting itself as a global health
provider, shipping face masks and test kits to nations with shortages.
Of course, China is right to give this medical equipment
to nations in need. But its government is bundling misinformation with this
aid.
These lies serve a higher purpose for the party: turning
coronavirus into a net positive for the CCP. Consulting firm Horizon Advocacy
published a report last week, based on Chinese government and state media
sources, that details China’s plan to position its economy in strategic sectors
to box out other industrialized nations still reeling from the virus’s impact.
According to China’s State Administration of Science, Technology, and Industry
for National Defense, China must jumpstart its economy to “pave the way for
international market expansion after the epidemic is over.”
Policymakers in Washington should take this gambit
seriously. But they shouldn’t assume that America’s friends and partners do. In
recent years, China — working via companies such as Huawei and through its much
publicized “Belt and Road Initiative” — has greatly expanded its global
economic footprint. Yet far too many of China’s trading partners remain blind
to the true nature of China’s political system and the threat it poses.
The United States must blunt the CCP’s disinformation
campaign. Doing so begins with fostering unity at home.
To date, most public debate in the United States has
centered around President Trump’s decision to call COVID-19 the “Chinese
virus.” The president did not choose his words out of racist animus — nor did
countless journalists and pundits who used the same phrase throughout the month
of January — but in response to CCP propaganda.
Yet the phrase, while accurate, fails to distinguish
between the Chinese people and the Chinese Communist Party. The citizens of
China are not the instigators of this crisis, but rather the first victims of
the party’s self-interested response to it.
This distinction is more than public-relations messaging;
it is a critical nuance that American leaders must internalize. We cannot stand
up to the CCP if we fail to differentiate between victims and victimizers —
just as Americans cannot unite the world while assuming the worst about one
another.
The Chinese Communist Party started this fire. But they
are angling to emerge from its ashes as a savior. While acknowledging its
current helpful efforts, Americans must stand together and call the party what
it is: an instigator.
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