It’s been 17 years since a respiratory virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) appeared in China. Within months, SARS spread to more than two dozen countries in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. By the time the global outbreak was contained, the virus had spread to over 8,000 people worldwide and killed almost 800. At the time, the Chinese government was criticized for responding slowly to the outbreak and concealing the seriousness of the illness. Now, a new respiratory illness has emerged in China. Like SARS, it’s caused by a coronavirus, this one known as SARS- CoV- 2.
The lesson from SARS—the first pandemic of the 21st century—was that state transparency and early and accurate public warning are essential to fight the major outbreak of any disease. But Beijing did the opposite during the Covid-19 outbreak, as underscored by a favourite social-media line, ‘China lied and people died.’ Beijing helped spawn a manmade calamity that has created an unparalleled global crisis.
When the outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) acted decisively not against the virus but against the whistle-blowers. In fact, China also covered up the SARS outbreak for more than a month, holding the doctor who blew the whistle on it in military custody for 45 days. And, in the past 19 months, secrecy and under-reporting of African swine flu cases in China has created one of the worst livestock epidemics ever that has killed millions of pigs there. China’s Covid-19 role, however, will rank as the most dangerous cover-up in modern history.
Beijing not only created misinformation regarding Covid but deliberately participated in increasing the outreach of Virus beyond Wuhan. Even after getting informed about the virus outbreak it didn’t pay any heed towards restricting international travel. It took that lightly and added curse by keeping the globe under veil.
Now, by spreading unfounded conspiracy theories, China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a pandemic by covering up the coronavirus outbreak at home. Indeed, the Chinese leadership is facing a credibility problem at home over its secretive initial response to the outbreak. It has sought to save itself from the people’s wrath by spreading conspiracy theories on the origin of the virus and by patting itself on the back for supposedly bringing the spread of the disease under control. Xi has been portrayed as a hero who is leading the country to victory in a ‘people’s war’ against Covid-19.
The Covid-19 crisis has not stopped the regime from going after anyone daring to expose its initial cover-up. Beijing property tycoon Ren Zhiqiang, who called Xi a ‘clown-emperor with no clothes,’ has been missing since mid-March. ‘I see not an emperor standing there exhibiting his ‘new clothes,’ but a clown who stripped naked and insisted on continuing to be an emperor,’ Ren had said in an essay that blamed Xi for silencing whistle-blowers and suppressing information on the outbreak.
Many Chinese are still seething over the regime’s initial concealment and mismanagement of the crisis. The public anger at home, coupled with the damage to China’s global image, has prompted Beijing to launch a public-relations blitzkrieg, including churning out conspiracy theories.
As if China’s role in starting a global pandemic was not enough, Beijing is now unleashing a pandemic of lies. To be sure, fabrications and disinformation are integral to China’s ‘three wars’ concept: public opinion warfare, psychological warfare and legal warfare. Consequently, the circulation of disinformation is an old Chinese tactic.
Beijing has sought to send two messages to the rest of the world: ‘we did everything to stop the outbreak; in fact, we bought you time;’ and ‘the virus probably didn’t even originate in China.’ The paradox is that the two messages, built on falsehoods, are contradictory. But that does not bother the regime, which has published a propaganda book in multiple languages, including English, Arabic, Spanish, French and Russian.
More broadly, China is now seeking to aggressively rebrand itself as the global leader in combating a virus that spread internationally from its own territory. Its rebranding effort includes counter-pandemic aid to developing countries, a pledge to donate $20 million to the WHO and a massive PR campaign, which extends from a claim to have fully contained the coronavirus in its worst-affected areas to disseminating plain disinformation so as to obscure its disastrous missteps that gifted the world a horrendous pandemic.
Taking clue from CCP’s propaganda, Beijing is trying to fashion a narrative that China is an example of how to control the spread of Covid-19. In fact, like the arsonist offering to extinguish the fire it started, China is now seeking to help other countries combat a dangerous pathogen after its own gross negligence led to that virus spreading across the globe. The attempt clearly is to deflect liability for a global crisis whose costs continue to mount. After all, if any other country had sparked such a mammoth international crisis, it would now be in the global doghouse.
CCP’s assertive efforts at deliberately concocting the whole pandemic plot, even as much of the world grapples with its escalating consequences, highlights its well-oiled machinery. Yet, when the Covid-19 outbreak occurred in Wuhan, China acted decisively not against the virus but against the whistle-blowing doctors, eight of whom were detained. This underscores that, for the world’s strongest and richest dictatorship, power and control take precedence over everything else, including human lives. Having spawned the global coronavirus crisis, China is now planning to exploit the financial and other disruptions that the pandemic has engendered. It is hoping to game the situation in order to gain greater technological and industrial advantage. But the international anger over its role in triggering the pandemic could frustrate its plans.
Corona Outbreak has taught the world that in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, China’s secrecy and obfuscation are antithetical to globalisation and international security. Transparency is essential to make us all safer. China cannot have its cake and eat it too. It must fundamentally reform and abide by international norms. If the pandemic upends the world order as we know it, China’s role will be a key trigger.
(This article was authored by Vishal Kumar. He is a Political Science graduate and currently a final year Law student at the University of Delhi)