Washington politicizing pandemic as part of its campaign against China

When the US leader said on Monday his administration is conducting a “very serious investigation” to hold China accountable for the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, he was actually responding to the query — “How do you keep American businesses from relying on China for their supply chain?” put to him by the far-right nationalist website Breitbart News.

Anyone familiar with the US administration’s investigations will know that the more “serious” it is, the more partial it will be, and that the US president’s answer is very revealing of the way his administration is trying the politicize the pandemic as part of its campaign to isolate China, damage its trade and hinder its development.

The US president replied to the question exactly one month after holding a “cordial” telephone call with his Chinese counterpart — in which he said he had learned a lot from China’s practices, appreciated China’s assistance, and vowed to eliminate disturbances to concentrate on strengthening Sino-US cooperation. Now it seems the disturbances, in the form of domestic criticism of his administration’s tardy and flawed response to the pandemic, are prompting him to sing a different tune.

In hinting that the US may seek “very substantial” compensation from China, the US leader is following the strategy laid out in an election campaign document issued by The National Republican Senatorial Committee, which urges Republicans to stick to the message that “the Chinese Communist Party caused this pandemic”. The document also makes clear the thinking behind this party line, stating that China is “an adversary and the Chinese Communist Party is our enemy”.

Given this, the associating of China as both the cause of the pandemic and the bearer of responsibility for its effects are sure to be trumpeted loud and often by the US and its allies, despite the US leader saying in January that the US “greatly appreciated China’s transparency” and that his administration was working “very closely with China”.

Given such pronouncements in the early days of the pandemic and the fact that infection zero is still unknown, not only would any compensation claim be dismissed on the grounds of sovereign immunity or it being an act of God, but the politicized nature of such accusations is clear to see as well.

As the US president and his administration have found, responding to such a public health threat is no easy matter — even when, as they did, they had many warnings on which to act and a couple of months in which to do so. In contrast to their disastrously flawed response, it is clear that China acted remarkably quickly and resolutely by responding as and when it did.

It is a consensus of scientists and researchers from different countries, including the US, that the virus is from nature, transmitted to humans from an animal host, and that it was in Wuhan that it was first reported. And it has been recognized by many countries, including the US before the administration changed its tune, that China has made all-out efforts, huge sacrifices and provided indispensable support for the world to contain the pathogen.

That the US accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s population while the number of deaths attributed to the virus in the US is more than 25 percent of the global total suggest that it is the US administration that will be facing a “very serious investigation” — from the American people.