How dangerous is China?

Today, the world remains focused on surviving COVID-19 with minimum casualties. But, as it stands, the number of symptomatic and asymptomatic cases continues to rise, notably, in America, Iran, Spain, and China. Though the latter has been disingenuous with its numbers, it begs one to ask: What on earth do we do about China?

The Communist government of China bears the brunt of responsibility for the outbreak. With its reopening of wet markets, concerns remain regarding China’s commitment to prevention and containment. Reports indicate their acknowledgement of the virus as early as November, but, rather than pursuing a means of containment, they silenced doctors to maintain their image. It wasn’t until the international community became aware of the disease in January that the government took measures to curb the spread of the virus. 

The international body tasked with monitoring the situation in China is the World Health Organization (WHO), which has not remained impartial on the situation in China. In an interview with WHO senior advisor Dr. Bruce Aylward, he dodged the question and responded with “[they] already talked about China.” 

The danger posed by the Chinese government is clear, as they have enabled, and continue to enable the conditions for COVID-19 to thrive, regardless of other bodies admitting to that effect.

With global manufacturing centred in China, the quarantines within the country, in recent months, have had major repercussions that have been widely felt around the globe. According to The Diplomat, exports and imports have plunged 17.2 and 4 per cent, while 95 per cent of business experienced revenues decreased. 80 per cent of said businesses saw operational costs increase during that time. 

Our reliance on Chinese manufacturing for essential goods, like medication, and who produces the vast majority of generic medication that we consume, leaves a void that could also trigger a global health crisis.

Can China be trusted?

In the West, we are hypersensitive to claims of Islamophobia, yet remain silent (like much of the world) on the persecution of Uyghur Muslims by the Communist government of China. Over a million Uyghurs remain in concentration camps, with widespread reports of torture, rape and ethnic cleansing occurring. 

There has been no international response to the ongoing situation, comprehensive or otherwise. The humanitarian failure of most major international NGO’s and institutions is the biggest example of caving to China’s influence.

As a serious cybersecurity threat, America has informed its allies as to the dangers posed by Huawei onto our 5G networks, including cyber espionage and “[modern] warfare beyond borders.” These concerns have also been echoed by our military. 

Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor are being leveraged by the Communist Party in exchange for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. 

The new social media sensation Tik Tok has also been alleged by multiple institutions and outlets of having Chinese spyware. 

Amongst these are a litany of other problems they present, including a blatant disregard for international patent laws and trade regulations, their enabling of foreign human rights abusers for profit, their budding influence over foreign media outlets, and more.