Millions of masks, gloves, sanitizers: Australia bans export of medical equipment after China ‘robbed’ them off

China and its sinister Communist government ransacked the down-under country of Australia in the wake of the rising Wuhan Virus cases. Several reports have emerged that in January and February when the COVID-19 cases were at its peak in Mainland China, Xi Jinping through his proxies in Australia and several other countries hoarded billions of medical equipment. The irony of this situation is that Beijing is now supplying countries worldwide with aids under its soft diplomacy offensive charm.

According to a report in Dailymail—China in total imported more than two billion masks and 25 million pieces of protective clothing from overseas between January 24 and February 29 before the Wuhan virus outbreak reached pandemic levels.

In one case, Australian employees of Greenland Group, a global property giant backed by the Shanghai government, bought up 3 million masks, half a million pairs of gloves, 700,000 hazmat suits, and bulk quantities of hand sanitizer, thermometers, and other medical items, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. The goods were hoarded at Greenland’s Sydney headquarters and were sent to China in January and February.

Risland Australia, one of the Chinese-owned property developers also reportedly shipped 80 tons of medical supplies to China in late February. The supplies included 100,000 protective coveralls and 900,000 pairs of medical gloves, the report further stated.

On Thursday a Chinese government report emerged detailing its foreign trade for the first two months of the year, when the country was at the peak of its virus crisis. To facilitate the rapid movement of goods and supplies, Beijing scrapped custom clearance protocol for “epidemic prevention and control materials”

The news report additionally revealed that a former Chinese military officer, Kuang Yuanping, now based in Sydney, was found to have coordinated with CCP agencies to export tonnes of Australian medical supplies to Wuhan in February. This marked “the first time an explicit link can be made to Chinese influence activities in Australia,” 

As a counteractive measure, the Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton on March 29 enacted new laws banning price gouging as well as the export of personal protective equipment (PPE) and disinfectant products as supplies in hospitals, aged-care centres, and other centres across the country are in short supply amid the rising Wuhan virus pandemic. Exporters caught shipping face masks, hand sanitizer, and other vital medical supplies overseas during the coronavirus crisis will face up to five years in jail.

Customs can now seize the goods and add them to the national stockpile for healthcare workers to use, as long as they are not defective.

Medical experts are worried a potential shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) will leave frontline medical staff exposed to infection and unable to care for patients. At the time of writing, Australia had 5,314 cases with 27 deaths.

The medical kits fiasco is relatively fresh in the minds of readers. Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey, The Philippines, and Ukraine are some of the many countries that have returned the faulty test kits of China in bulk numbers. The CCP has mounted a huge propaganda campaign where it is using Medical diplomacy as a part of its larger Soft-diplomacy tactics. The country which hoarded the stockpile of Australia is now projecting itself as a messiah by claiming to help the countries in duress.

The entire COVID-19 situation could have been handled with responsibility and transparency. However, the CCP instead of arresting the slide let the virus disease snowball into a big pandemic that seems nearly impossible to contain at the moment. To top it all, the CCP has now emerged as a ‘robber’–even by Beijing’s standards it’s a new low.