China must be made to pay for its role in coronavirus spread

It is now well realised by the world community that COVID-19 originated from Wuhan in China, though Beijing has denied this.

The world community further believes that China has not informed the world about the seriousness of COVID-19 issue when it happened in Wuhan and did not share information about the challenges it faced in dealing with the problem.

Certainly, the rest of the world would have taken some precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, if China had forewarned the world.

In this process, China has let down the world community and a number of people seem to think that WHO too has let down the world community, as it has not insisted that it should visit Wuhan region to study the problem. WHO should have visited the Wuhan region and must have taken the initiative to launch world-wide efforts to prevent the spread of virus and develop an appropriate vaccine/drug to treat the disease.

While the world community is suffering due to COVID-19 with loss of thousands of lives and many more thousands of people infected and the numbers going further at an alarming level, China claims that it has solved the problem and is now free of the virus.  If it is really so, China should have shared information with the rest of the world, as to how it solved the problem, so that the world community would be benefited. By not doing so, China has exhibited irresponsible behaviour, obviously implying that it has the least concern about the health of the world community.

It appears that China is trying to give an impression that while it has solved the problem, the other countries like the USA and those in Europe and rest of the world have not been able to do so, implying that China is far more advanced in the field of medical science and technology.

Countries like USA, Japan, Singapore and countries in Europe, which are supposed to be technologically and scientifically advanced, certainly feel sad, depressed and diminished, that they are not able to achieve so far, what China claims to have achieved by combating the virus.

The worst scenario is that these advanced countries in Europe, USA do not even have an adequate manufacturing facility for masks, sanitisers, test kits, ventilators etc. and have to face the humiliating situation of having to import personal protection equipment from China.

In such scenario, one cannot but get a feeling that countries in Europe, as well as USA, Japan and others, feel humiliated, even as they are battling the virus without any firm clue as to how to overcome the crisis and when they could do.

Like a wounded tiger, European countries, America and Japan are bound to look for ways and means to undo the loss of reputation due to the inability to handle the COVID-19 crisis vis a vis China’s claim that it has sorted out the issue and China implicitly trying to convey an impression that it has superior technical and scientific expertise.

The suspicion is growing not only amongst these “wounded tigers” but also in the rest of the world that China must have enacted a game plan to spread the virus and the virus could have been generated from Wuhan lab, though there is no conclusive evidence to prove this so far.

China seems to be throwing stones sitting in the glasshouse, without realising that it is vulnerable on several fronts to international pressure, in spite of it’s impressive economic and industrial growth achieved during the last few decades and the strength that it has gained in the process.

China seems to be preparing the ground for the scenario of confrontation with several countries in the world, as is evident from its recent moves in the South China Sea, without being concerned about the COVID-19 crisis that has caused serious unrest all over the world.

Though China has systematically gained vice-like grip and sort of control over several weak countries such as Pakistan by extending loan and participating in projects, it is unlikely that such strategies would help China, if and when it would be confronted by several other countries.

It is astonishing that China does not have the wisdom to realise about the need to gain good global image by cooperating with the rest of the world in combating COVID-19 and not creating territorial disputes with the nearby countries like Vietnam, India and others.

It is now realised by many countries that China has expansionist ambition and wants to dominate the world. Therefore, an impression is gaining around the world that China has to be controlled at any cost.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)