Here is an excerpt from a novel THE EYES OF DARKNESS by Dean Koontz, first published in 1981, and it goes like “It was around then that a Chinese scientist named Li Chen defected to the United States, carrying a diskette record of China’s most important and dangerous: new biological weapon in a decade. They call the stuff ‘Wuhan-400’ because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center.”
Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, People’s Republic of China (PRC). It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China that lies on the confluence of Yangtze and Han rivers. Wuhan city has a developed infrastructure as it connects the region very well by means of water, land and sky. The city was formed after the merger of three towns Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang. The Hankou town was nicknamed as the Chicago of China.
The modern Wuhan also hosts a lot of student population as it is the hub of educational institutions. In addition to the universities and colleges, the city harbors scientific and technological parks, high profile research centers and hi-tech industries. There is a proper biotech industrial base known as biolake in the Optics Valley of China, located in Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone. The presence of six major bio-industry parks in biolake shows that there is a major thrust on research and development in the health and the life science sector in order to build a sustainable and long term growth of PRC. While China is aiming to become a large, world class facility, it is crucial for it to address whole spectrum of ethical issues involved in the industry.
As per THE LANCET, it was December 1, 2019 when the person who did not have any exposure to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market was detected with the new virus but the Chinese establishment concealed the entire incident in order to protect the Chinese vested interest in the geopolitical arena. According to the recent sources, a Chinese doctor named Li Wenliang, who was also the whistleblower of new coronavirus died during the hospital treatment. It also turns out that the first cluster of 40 was also detected with the new virus and only two-thirds from the cluster were found to have a link with the market which also sold live animals. It is shocking that as the number of such cases is increasing, the significance of the market is going down. The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the diseases as Coronavirus disease or COVID-2019. On 11 February 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses or ICTV introduced the name severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to refer to the virus strain previously known as 2019-nCoV.
A lot of cases were reported from the Hubei. On 23 January 2020, the central government of the People’s Republic of China imposed a complete lockdown in Wuhan and nearby cities in Hubei province in an effort to quarantine the epicenter of an outbreak of SARS-COV-2. The WHO risk assessment clearly shows that the risks associated with the COVID-2019 are high in the regional as well as the global level.
It is beyond any doubt that the issue of Health and Hygiene is a major concern in rapidly developing countries like China and India. There have been serious issues related with the quality of air in the major cities of both the countries. Realizing that China’s air has become highly polluted, the China declared war on pollution in 2014. It’s a fact that a fair population in the city of Wuhan lives in slums, but, the new virus that originated in Wuhan appears to have roots not in a slum, rather in a modern city.
Especially when the population in an average city keeps on rising and a lot of garbage is created on a daily basis, the waste management remains a critical issue. The consumption of meat has increased a lot in the recent past and it is quite obvious that the complicated waste material, produced by the meat-producing sector, if left unattended, could lead to vectors and vector-borne diseases. However, the generation of vectors, infection to human bodies and then its propagation that eventually develops into an uncontrolled growth, epidemic or pandemic is a multi-step, complex process and it is all something that has not been understood well even by the experts.
While the inner geopolitical and social situation of China is quite complex in nature, a Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation has emerged, perhaps no nation in recent history has undergone such a huge transformation as China has in the past 25 years. After the demise of Mao Zedong and the rise of Ding Xiao Ping, this has brought a dramatic change for the Chinese leadership as well as the Chinese people; he initiated open door policy for the Chinese economy that helped China to shift its people from poverty into middleclass. This way China has shown to the western world that it can offer Chinese dream to its millions of million people and rest of the world could be enlightened from the Chinese experience of economic growth. On the 70th anniversary (on October 1, 2019) the Chinese President Mr. Xi Jinping proclaimed that no force will stop or shake China from achieving its goals of becoming the primary global power. The Belt and Road initiative, known as One Belt One Road or OBOR, is considered as one of the most ambitious infrastructural projects of China. It has aggressive geopolitical intention like ‘string of pearl’ for the Indian Ocean Region and salami-slicing tactics in the South China Sea.
The outbreak of new virus from the Chinese soil has not only claimed several lives in the recent past, it has posed a serious challenge not only for China but for the entire world. As a result, the entire scenario in and around China is evolving dynamically. Amidst this, the Indian Prime Minister Modi has shown solidarity and offered India’s assistance in relation to the new coronavirus. Under the rapidly developing scenario in China and on the invitation of Prime Minister Modi, there is a belief that US President Trump’s visit will open a new period in bilateral ties.
China is a major exporter of electrical machinery that also includes computers, cotton, tea, rice, potatoes and soybeans. According to the statistica.com, a leading provider of market and consumer data, China is going to have one-fifth share in global gross domestic product by the year 2021. As per the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, there have been several cases of COVID- 2019 that have been reported in countries like Japan, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia. While China is pushing massive, futuristic as well as highly ambitious projects and aggressive policies, it had to face a serious crisis in its own mainland due to the outbreak of COVID-2019. No one knows whether the virus outbreak in Wuhan can turn out to be the black swan of the global economy, it is pretty much clear that the demand and supply chains from the Asian region would be affected. While the viral outbreak can slow down the business in China, the exports from Indian markets are likely to boost up. But, China can bounce back and improve its situation. A lot of Indian manufacturing and trade depends on the raw items that are imported from China, so it is not going to be so smooth for Indian side as well.
On one hand, the regular dialogues and engagements between India-China are hampered. On the other hand, India has tightened visa rules by cancelling the existing visas for Chinese citizens and foreigners who had visited the country in last two months. Overall, India has to remain vigilant and monitor the situation very carefully. The PRC’s president Mr. Xi Jinping has absolute power over Chinese political system and the blaze of new coronavirus can hurt Jinping’s leadership globally. Chinese history shows, time and again, that once the leadership falls it never comes back because the Chinese rulers believe that they have got mandate from the heavens. Maybe the current regime of PRC has lost the mandate from heaven, only time will tell how the events will unfold.
Kunwar Alkendra Pratap Singh
The author belongs to Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.