WHAT CHINA IS DOING TO THE WORLD??

The carona war on mankind has thrown many dimension before the world. The humanity is under attack and that’s no fallacy. Every country is facing this pandemic and trying to cope with its rising consequences, which are both economic and health of its citizens. The world leaders are under tremendous pressure from their constituents to explain the nature of this pandemic and what has befallen upon them, they are also been looked forward as saviours and by their people who should have the answers to solve this.

Many countries leaders have fallen by the wayside in their popularity ratings depending on their response or lack of response to this pandemic. Yet some leaders have risen to the occasion and earned the goodwill of their people. I can quote you examples of leaders in countries like Italy, Spain, US, Brazil, Colombia, France, Venezuela, UK have earned the ire of their people in not realising the nature of this pandemic or taking early steps to curb the spread and on the other side you have countries like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Srilanka, Australia and India who have done the lockdown early and have been effective in controlling the spread of this deadly virus.

But among all this, the character of one country stands out quite vividly in contrast that is CHINA.   

Today the whole world is on one side and CHINA is on the other side. Even its closest allies like IRAN, Russia and African countries are seen distancing themselves from CHINA.

They aren’t as vocal as in their support to the policies that CHINA has adopted during the course ever since the first case was detected in Wuhan.

It is now an established fact that they misled WHO initially into the origins of this virus, its nature, its contagions and several other medical records that need to be shared by responsible nations in the world order. While they were successful in containing this pandemic to one province of Hueibi of which Wuhan is the capital city, it is surprising that the virus couldn’t travel to 2000 km to Shanghai, Guangzhou or Beijing but travelled quite effortlessly to Europe, Australia, USA, Russia and Latin America in the month of January and February when the world was coming to grip with this issue.

The Chinese State Media meanwhile was busy in making propaganda videos on the city of Wuhan on how it was combatting this deadly virus. But officially neither their premier or their President Mr Jin Ping call any world leader and inform them about this pandemic in his country. Don’t you think this is normal for any head of state to take into confidence about the humanitarian problem their country is facing? Yes, he may have had several conversations with many world leaders during this period, but did he give an early awareness about what his country was facing?

That is the question the World Media or the Leaders should be asking Mr Jin Ping. Shouldn’t he or somebody higher upon their Government reach out to other world leader and apprised them of what’s happening in their backyard, instead of these leaders relying on unsubstantiated reports, this would have given these Government a head start on how to control the spread of this virus.

So the moot point question is: “Did China want this to happen anyway when it allowed lakh of travellers from Wuhan to travel out of the country in January but not within China?

So is China really guilty of a cover-up? The whole world is questioning the behaviour of China in this crisis. And as they say, the true character of the person or a country is revealed during a crisis. China has been acting strangely (its Government) ever since this crisis began.

And I’ll tell you How?

During any period, in history, there is a change over time in the world order. Even prior to world wars there has been the power struggle among the colonial powers like Spain, Portugal, France, Netherlands and England. It was England who was a late starter in the colonial expansion game when Spain and Portugal were leading the armada so to speak with discoveries of new lands and its untold wealth that was upturned by the savvy Brits and French who conquered two-third of the world. Till early nineteenth-century Britain was a superpower much like the USA, but then the World war 1 and world war 2 happened and slowly the Brits came down from their holy pedestal. In fact, these are spectacular examples of how the world order changes hand.

World War 1 saw the rise of Germany as an industrial power in Europe that didn’t have large colonial footprints like its neighbours France, Spain, Netherlands, UK so wanted to be an expansionist power and that resulted in the rise of Hitler and thus the world war 2.

Similar is the history with rising Japan at that time. Post the war with the near extinction of these two warring nations is well known and their resurgence as a major economic power is also equally known.

But the war threw up, two new superpowers that ruled the world with their ideology and soft power and their influence. That is the USA and USSR, both these countries were largely uninvolved players in 2nd world war. They were dragged in by the imperialist forces and they then fought them and emerged victoriously.

The countries that gradually lost their power on the world platform were countries like the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands. Their influence receded gradually as country after country gained independence from their colonial masters. By the late fifties and through the seventies and the eighties, USA and USSR by far the most prosperous nation having the deadly nuclear arsenal and their influence that split the whole world among these two poles. That was the height of the cold war that most of us have lived through.

Not cut to circa 2020 what do we find China has replaced USSR and has come to what USSR was in equivalence to its power and influence and also having the world largest army and some deadly stockpile of weapons too.

China has steadily increased its strength in the geopolitics of its region based on the economic success it enjoys, it has grown its influence among the developing nations of the world by way of loans that help in building the infrastructure of these poor nations, which in turn benefits the Chinese much more by way of allocating these lucrative contacts to their companies alone. Well, here the Chinese Government have been successful in influencing these local African and south Asian countries to huge loans and in the bargain have gained access not only to their land assets but an influence in their ruling elite where the left and communists or their peddlers are usurping the power country after country be it Nepal, Maldives, Srilanka, East and West Africa, Pakistan etc.

USA has been accusing China and WHO being in a conspiratorial relationship each one trying to cover-up others track and recently the US first withdrew its funding from WHO and then has ceased to be a member of this world organisation. So it remains to be seen what effect this organisation will have after US money and influence and its participation is not there. Many countries may pull out their support in the coming days and there may be attempts to form another Health Organisation by the US, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, Japan and New Zealand and several other nations that may spell the demise of WHO in its present form or may embolden WHO to undertake reforms that the USA is wanting and that it comes out of the clutches of CHINA.

China has suddenly up the ante in all its neighbourhood, be it the South China Seas with countries like Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines in the South and with Japan in the north. Here in Ladakh it has amassed a lot of it military resources in the finger knuckles area in Aksai Chin along the Pangong Tso area in Northern Ladakh and has had some skirmishes with Indian soldiers over there.

With Hong Kong citizens there is an ongoing conflict where it has seized this moment to assert itself and trying to assimilate it in their system though according to the treaty they have 27 years still remaining at their disposal.

With Taiwan, it is muscle-flexing to showcase to the world that it can send its military any time to Taiwan and gobble that too.

Literally China is showing its 56 inches Chest and telling the whole world to mind its own business. And what the world leaders supposed to do to contain this world bully, today China is just exposing itself in its immediate neighbourhood, in asserting itself there, tomorrow it will be the whole world.

Yes, the threat is now real, with the fact that they are the world’s factory, their economic power now reigns supreme, they have lent billions of dollars to upcoming nations much more than the world bank could ever do. So these nations are also at their beck and call and will take it adversely to China being called out by the wealthier nations, so china is well aware of this and isn’t scared of playing the bully card quite successfully and giving an up fist to these nations.

Sulphur dioxide concentration in Wuhan as reported in Taiwan News in 15th Feb'2020

Right through the forties in the last century, English has been a medium of business throughout the world and it has remained so for the last 100 years or so.

My feeling is that this will change drastically in the next ten years. The Chinese language will be propagated and proposed by the same Chinese Government through their propaganda machine throughout the world and billions of dollars will be spent in achieving this. Scholarship and free study in China will be promoted on a large scale and there will be a reversal of students from poorer countries who would prefer to go to China than come to US or UK or Australia, Thus the usage of English will diminish among the younger population who will take up Chinese as the main language instead of English. 

If China is able to spread the Chinese language to about 10% of the world population its hegemony and its influence will be even greater with every passing year, thus as we now appreciate Hollywood Stars and dream of the American way of life, with every passing year the influence Chinese films and their way of living, their food, their culture and their thinking will be even greater. It is not that their influence is not being felt anyways, but there will be a counter-propaganda to show that western concepts and style of living is not in sync with modern times and that is regressive and unsustainable. So millions will absorb this mantra and try to change their behavioural pattern on these new aspects shown to us.   

The American downfall is already happening before us and their steady withdrawal from major world treaties, trade pacts and its influence is slowly diminishing before us. The wealthy G5 nations today care two hoots about what the USA wants and does and is seen hardly as a threat or even as a protector which once it was conceived to be. It is a well-known fact that the US does not want to be the policeman of the world and doesn’t want to be seen in this role any longer.

In fact, there is a gap in the world polity for a major power to occupy this position that the USA seems to be abdicating.

The recent actions of CHINA are a step in that direction, that is the reason for its emboldened steps, its knows that at this juncture neither the US of any European power is in a position to censure least of all call for any international sanctions. Today with the supply chain fully in Chinas hand it can simply tell its factory to shut out the supply by reversing any sanctions by counter-sanctions.

There is a saying in Hindi that is quite popular "That you have cut your hands and placed in your adversaries’ hand whom you thought was your friend".

That is the real situation in world politics with China. Whether you like it or not. 

In my next article, I will deal with steps countries should take individually and collectively to make this world a more pluralist democratic society, rather than become a vassal of an antiquated idea of defunct socialism, which the very country propagating the same doesn't believe in it.