China must come clean on Covid-19
and threatening economic reprisals.
Australia is Exhibit A. The country is more economically tied with China than with its security patron, the US. Yet Australia has come under a blistering attack from China for proposing that WHO member-nations support an independent inquiry into the origins and spread of the coronavirus. Australia said it will push for such an investigation at the WHO assembly when it convenes for its annual meeting on May 17. In response, the Chinese ambassador to Australia threatened punishment through Chinese boycotts of Australian wine, beef and tourism and education sectors.
Meanwhile, as the Group of Seven (G7) countries, India and others seek a review and reform of WHO, China’s decision to give an additional $30 million to the agency appears aimed at frustrating such calls. International rules require countries to notify WHO of “a public health emergency of international concern within 24 hours of assessment”. China’s failure to do so has led to calls for introducing WHO inspectors with the power to enter a country to probe a disease outbreak in the manner of weapons inspectors.
Make no mistake: Money alone can neither aid China’s strategy to deflect blame for the current crisis nor help defuse the increasing global backlash against it. Calls are growing louder across the world to hold China publicly accountable for the pandemic’s mounting human and economic toll. The only way China can silence such calls and begin to repair the serious damage to its image is through an independent international inquiry.
If it blocks such a probe, China will pay enormous costs — not as reparations but by compelling other major economies to restructure their relationships with it, a process that could ultimately end its status as the global hub of vital supply chains. China’s mercantilist expansionism has already led to new regulations in the European Union, Australia, Germany, Spain and Italy. But India’s recent new rule mandating prior scrutiny of Chinese investment in any form is the first of its kind. Another major recent move is by Japan, which has earmarked $2.2 billion to help Japanese firms shift manufacturing out of China.
If China refuses to come clean, important countries are likely to start economically distancing themselves from it, through new tariffs, non-tariff barriers, relocation of manufacturing and other policy moves. Eventually, this could undermine the communist party’s monopoly on power in China.