Mon, Apr 20, 2020 page6

• Geopolitics of COVID-19 pandemic

  • By Sushil Seth
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  Even as the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the world, it has developed its own geopolitics, with all sorts of conspiracy theories circulating.

  China, where the virus struck in Wuhan, a city of 11 million people, took its time to acknowledge its reality.

  Indeed when a young Chinese doctor at a Wuhan hospital raised the alert about a new virus circulating, the local authorities forced him to deny it and put him in home detention of sorts. The tragedy of it all is that the doctor himself contracted the virus while working at his hospital and he became a martyr of sorts, paying with his life.

  The virus spread fast and the authorities realized the gravity of the situation, and locked down the city, and then extended restrictions to the entire Hubei Province, and between regions. China managed to bring the situation under control after more than 3,000 fatalities and more than 80,000 people infected.

  However, the outbreak in China is by no means over. New cases of coronavirus are emerging all the time in China, mainly from those returning from abroad and from asymptomatic patients. However, the situation is not as dire as before.

  Even as COVID-19 was raging in China, the Internet was swarming with conspiracy theories. One was that it was a population control scheme, as humans have become too numerous. It was not clear who was actually behind this “population control.” That is the “beauty” of conspiracy theories — they just seem to float on their own. Another one traced the virus to a Chinese biosecurity laboratory, not far from Wuhan, as part of some bioweapon under development. Yet another conspiracy theory, although debunked by the British authorities, attributed it to China’s 5G rollout in the UK.

  As far as people know, the virus jumped from wild animals to humans, likely late last year, in the popular Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market of Wuhan.

  Chinese sources allege that the virus was brought to Wuhan by the US military. It is not clear how this was done.

  However, in the world of conspiracy theorists, one outlandish theory is as good as another.

  In the world of US President Donald Trump, when he finally realized the enormity of COVID-19, with the US becoming a major pandemic epicenter, overtaking China, it simply became the “Chinese virus.” When pointed out its racist connotation, he simply said that it came from China, stating it as a simple fact.

  In the meantime, having managed the crisis, China is feeling confident enough to use it as a tool for soft power diplomacy. It has sent masks, protective gear and other equipment to seriously affected countries such as Italy.

  Its significance should not be lost, because it is the US and Western countries, with huge resources, that used to help in times of epidemics in poorer countries.

  With the US now seemingly in a huge health crisis and needing help from others, China would appear to have overtaken the US, at least with regard to the coronavirus crisis.

  It is reportedly delivering medical equipment, such as masks, protective equipment and coronavirus test kits, to many countries, although some of the test kits have been found to be defective.

  However, no matter how much China might want the world to forget that the coronavirus started there, it might not be that easy, because, elements in the West would not let it be forgotten. It will be another exercise in power politics with the US and its allies putting China on the spot.

  At the same time, on the Chinese side, the US would continue to be blamed for starting the pandemic in the first place. And the partisans on both sides would keep pushing their respective narratives.

  For instance, conservative London think tank the Henry Jackson Society believes that China should be sued under international law for at least ￡3.2 trillion (US$4 trillion) for initially trying to cover up the pandemic, causing so many deaths and damaging the economies of the affected countries.

  China is projecting its relative success in containing the virus as an example of the effectiveness of its system to deal with emergencies and following it up with an efficient delivery of medical equipment to affected countries.

  The respective narratives on both sides would continue to be pursued with vigor, thus preventing cooperative action to deal with the tremendous problems in the health sector and economies, which might sink into recession, and even depression.

  Sushil Seth is a commentator based in Australia.
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