Thank You, Chinese Communist Party

Thank You, Chinese Communist Party

Thank you, Chinese communist party, kith and kin of Bernie’s and Alexandria’s democratic socialists here in the U.S.  Thank you, UN’s World Health Organization, in the pocket of the Chinese communists.  Thank you for countless thousands of deaths and the loss of trillions of dollars of economic value that could have been avoided if the Chinese communists and the W.H.O. were responsible members of world society and told the truth at the outset of the corona virus outbreak, in November/December in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

Instead, the Chinese communists, abetted by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the W.H.O., lied, covered up and suppressed the virus outbreak, allowed festivals in Wuhan, and travel from Wuhan and Hubei Province as if there was nothing wrong.  Even though President Trump was embroiled in the impeachment farce fueled by the leftists here in the U.S., he took action at the end of January to exclude travelers from China into the U.S.  Many Chinese went to Europe, particularly Northern Italy, and we know what happened there.  Trump shut down travel from Europe, UK and Canada a week or so later.  These travel restriction were met with cries of racist!, xenophobe!, and worse from our Trump-hating politicians and media.  Being Trump, he has never failed to brag about his early and decisive actions on closing the U.S. to foreign travelers from infected countries.

When I visited China in 2015, Xi Jinping had only been in power for a couple years, and had not yet consolidated long term dictatorial powers.  The Obama administration was treating the Chinese communists as respected members of the world community, hoping this would placate them, notwithstanding their “island forming” exercises in the South China Sea, and their emerging brutal treatment of dissenters, Christians and Muslim Uighurs in Western China.  The active independence movement in Hong Kong had not yet become a major, burning issue. Obama seemed quite content to symbolically bow to this regime, and allow them to pilfer our intellectual property and take advantage of us in trade.  To be noted, the previous Bush 43 administration was not much better in these respects. (No bowing, though).

Not only did the Chinese communists lie about the magnitude of the corona virus outbreak and the fact that it could spread human to human, they then deported all western journalists, fudged the numbers, and announced to the world how efficiently they handled the outbreak in China.  Only the count of cremation urns in Wuhan point to the Chinese government’s perfidy.

Then, after allowing the virus to emerge in Wuhan’s wet markets (or escape from a nearby bio-weapons laboratory), the cynical Chicoms embarked on a smear campaign trying to blame the U.S. military for the outbreak, and threatening to withhold vital pharmaceutical exports to the U.S.  They also undertook an assistance campaign, providing medical assistance and supplies to afflicted countries.  Presumably this assistance would have obligations similar to those under China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”.

Will the Chinese communists’ irresponsibility, perfidy and cynicism ever be brought to task?  Let us not hold our breaths.  But also, let us not forget China’s fomenting this plague on the world, and then cynically trying to gain international political advantage from it.  Let us also not forget the UN’s World Health Organization, whose head, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, hewed to the false Chinese party line, rather than providing truthful advice to the world about the virus.

As a minimum, we should bring manufacture of critical pharmaceuticals and other necessary items back to the U.S. or traditionally friendlier countries.  We should stop importing strategic items from China because they’re cheap.  American lives can be lost if we do not have reliable sources of supply of critical goods. 

Also, we should review our relationship with the UN’s World Health Organization, and particularly Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ relationship with China.  The U.S. assessment for the W.H.O. for 2020-21 is $115.7 million.  China’s is $57.4 million.  Yet the W.H.O. seems to consistently parrot China’s party line concerning research, diseases and other health issues.  We should use our economic clout to ensure responsible leadership and responsible policies for W.H.O., and not the current incumbent who seems so firmly in China’s pocket, and who has proposed Robert Mugabe as a good will ambassador to W.H.O. in the past.

Ray Gruszecki

Sheltering in Place

April 7, 2020