New ‘Cold War’ could force us to take tough decisions
THERE is no good time for a global pandemic to strike, but Covid-19 hit at an especially vulnerable moment for the world’s most important relationship, that between the United States and China.
The global powerhouses were locked in a bitter trade dispute, although there were signs of possible rapprochement.
Since then, questions about China’s role in the coronavirus outbreak and the US response has ratcheted up tensions between Xi Jinping’s China and Donald Trump’s America.
The world’s two biggest economies are fighting a de facto Cold War with the pandemic at its heart.
China is emboldened by its success in restricting the outbreak’s impact at home mostly to the city where it first emerged, Wuhan.
Mr Trump’s response to the pandemic has flipped from hailing China’s efforts, to dismissing the virus as a flu, to blaming Beijing for the growing political crisis.
The key questions for the rest of us are whether Beijing’s campaign of disinformation poses a threat to efforts to deal with the pandemic.
Did China cover up crucial information that could have prevented Covid-19 spreading globally? And did China do enough to stop the problem at its origins and prevent it from becoming a global problem?
Political point-scoring
Mr Trump needs political points at home and right now China is an easy target.
He is raising questions over whether the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, about 13km from the wet market generally considered the source.
While scientists are lining up to say they don’t think it was a man-made virus, Mr Trump’s aim is to settle the blame on China.
As long as China refuses an independent inquiry, and it is unlikely to ever allow such a probe, the doubt will linger.
For its part, China has trumpeted its anti-Covid-19 measures: hospitals built in a week, millions of tests, face masks, rigidly imposed isolation.
There has been widespread praise for China’s export of medical equipment around the world. But there is growing anger at the way the country is perceived to have managed the virus initially.
Propaganda machine
Since the start, China has used propaganda to shape the narrative.
This initially made it the envy of the world, although the success of South Korea and Taiwan, where the outbreak has been kept in check without resorting to draconian measures, has qualified the overall achievement.
Beijing took the fight to Mr Trump’s backyard when a foreign ministry in Beijing suggested American soldiers taking part in the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan deliberately spread the virus.
In China, the campaign to muzzle off-message reporting has been swift and brutal.
Li Wenliang, a doctor who tried to issue the first warning about coronavirus and who later died of the disease, was told to stop “making false comments”.
Ai Fen, another whistle-blower doctor, was censored early on for articles about the virus.
Last week, three Chinese volunteers who published censored Covid-19 articles on the open-source website Github were detained.
China has relentlessly pressured international agencies, to the point where the World Health Organisation (WHO) is perceived as being in China’s pocket. On January 22,
The virus was set to go global. But China felt it was in control
China and the WHO had what the UN health body called “divergent views”.
Because of China’s resistance, the WHO backed down on labelling the crisis a pandemic. The next day, China announced the lockdown in Wuhan and other tough measures.
Two days later, Wuhan mayor Zhou Xianwang revealed five million residents had left the city before the lockdown.
The virus was set to go global. But China felt it was in control.
Pressure on international bodies
The pressure spread to the European Union and individual countries – even powerful nations such as France and Germany. China’s embassy in Paris criticised France’s response to the pandemic.
Diplomats put pressure on German government officials to moderate criticisms of China.
China’s status as the leading EU trade partner means Europe is extremely cautious in criticising China.
In recent days, EU officials apparently bowed to pressure from China and softened their criticism of the rising superpower in a report documenting how governments push disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.
An initial draft of an EU report accused China of running “a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image… both overt and covert tactics have been observed”.
The final version took out the critical passages and any questions as to how this could happen have been fudged.
Australian lessons
Maybe we in Europe should take a leaf out of the Australians’ book. China buys up one third of Australia’s exports, especially resources, but it has taken a measured approach in dealing with the pressure from Beijing.
Its prime minister, Scott Morrison, said no one can rule out theories that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab, but reckons a wet market was “most likely” the origin of the pandemic.
Morrison has written to the G20 group of government leaders calling for a “proper assessment” of the origins of and government responses to the pandemic.
Beijing’s reaction to calls for an independent inquiry has been vitriolic.
China’s ambassador Cheng Jingye warned in an interview with the ‘Australian Financial Review’: “Maybe the ordinary people will say, ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?”
Chinese state media described Australia as “chewing gum stuck to the bottom of China’s shoe”.
Australia seems not to care and is sticking to its guns. There are some hard choices ahead in this new Cold War.
Countries such as Ireland and the rest of the EU have decisions to make.