A few days ago, the United Kingdom proposed a new alliance of 10 countries called D10- where D stands for Democracy- to create an alternate pool of 5G equipment, and end alliance on Huawei, the Chinese tech giant.
The proposed group would include the members of G 7- the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Canada- and Australia, India, and South Korea. The common factor among these countries is that all of these are democratic and market economies.
From the proposed idea, it seems, the United Kingdom wants Democratic free-market economies to use Democracy to corner China, an authoritarian Communist one-party state.
Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease, many political experts have opined that had the deadly virus originated in a democratic country, the world would have alerted and containment measures taken on a very early stage. But China quelled the information about the virus, lay to the world, and behaved like a very irresponsible country.
The Communist government could get away with all these because there is no accountability and lack of checks and balance system, which are essential traits of Democratic countries. The commentators have alleged that the political system is the reason behind the outbreak of such deadly pandemics in China.
Whenever such a deadly outbreak takes place in any other country, the global community comes together to fight it in the very initial stage. But, in authoritarian countries like China or North Korea, which do not give access to the global community in their countries, such outbreaks can reach to a large stage because they quell information and avoid collaborated efforts.
The Chinese Communist Party delayed in informing the world about the deadly nature of the virus; jailed the whistleblowers; forced WHO to release the statement that virus is not contagious, and ramped up medical equipment from countries around the world to fight the pandemic. It would be impossible for any democratic country to carry out such large scale cover-up for a large period of time.
Because non-democratic countries like China and North Korea are dangerous to humanity, they must be kept out of the global system.
However, in the last few decades, the democratic countries around the world including the leader of the free world, the United States, have supported China’s rise. It got a respectable place in the global system, and now it threatens the existence of rule-based liberal order.
After Xi Jinping came to power, China became increasingly assertive, and countries like the United States realized the mistake. But, Obama was too weak, and too much part of the same system that promoted China, to take on Beijing. However, Trump, since he was elected in November 2016, has called out Chinese assertiveness and bullying, and refused to give in to the Chinese attempt to undermine the global system.
But, Trump was alone in the fight against China; as other democratic countries, fearing economic prowess of Beijing, were too fearful to take on the dragon. The outbreak of Coronavirus gave Trump a golden opportunity to expose China and bring the democratic world together.
Trump turned natural ally- the United Kingdom against China and now the island nation is the most formidable adversary of Beijing. The attack on China primarily comes from right-wing nationalist leaders of Democratic countries like the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Most of the countries in the proposed group of 10 democracies are ruled by right-wing nationalist leaders such as Trump, Modi, Abe, Jonhson, Merkel (her party is right in Germany’s political spectrum), and these are leaders have a most vocal critic of China’s opaque system.
From the proposed alliance on Democratic countries of UK, it has become crystal clear the right wing nationalist leaders want to weaponize democracy to exclude China from Global system. The message to China is clear- You are not welcome unless you democratize your political system.
For too long, China exploited the Global System for its benefits without really caring for its rules and regulations. From currency devaluation to cruel treatment of minorities, capitalizing on free markets without opening up its economy to the world, China has taken advantage of loopholes of Global System for too long without bending to its rules. But the world had enough of China, and now it will be solo rider unless Communist party wants to give up the control of the state and allow democracy to thrive.
