Chinese Communist Party acted disgracefully and turned World Health Organisation into PR machine

IT is now well-established that the Chinese Communist Party made numerous errors that led to the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Firstly, it failed to provide adequate hygiene regulation at the wet market in wild animals in Wuhan. This is inexplicable in a highly autocratic and oppressive regime with a recent history of vulnerability to such viral pathogens.

The most plausible explanation for the outbreak of this epidemic links the lack of market hygiene with the propensity of bat colonies to propagate highly infectious, virulent virus populations.

Bats have many highly dangerous, infectious micro-organisms within their bodies, but are largely immune to them. Consequently, they provide an ideal breeding environment for them.

Unfortunately, some creatures bitten by bats are eaten as delicacies by local Chinese and do not have immunity to the coronavirus. It is believed that these intermediaries helped to transition the virus from animal to human.

The Chinese Communist Party subsequently allowed millions to leave Wuhan after the outbreak began, suppressing all domestic and foreign information about the outbreak.

It cracked down on whistleblowers, subjecting them to show trials and forcing them to recant. It turned the WHO into virtually an arm of its state propaganda machine.

In mid-january, six weeks after the virus emerged in Wuhan, the WHO was parroting Beijing’s dishonest claim that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. In February, it was advising against putting restrictions on travel from China. In late January, it was still praising the Chinese for their “transparency”.

This inept and bizarre response by the Beijing patsy is easily explained. The annual budget of the WHO is smaller than some large hospitals and totally depends on larger donors, like the People’s Republic of China.

Could this unprecedented disaster yet prove to be the Chinese Chernobyl, leaving the Xi Jinping dictatorship vulnerable to overthrow due to internal disillusionment with the Communist Party?

GEORGE WORKMAN By email