For more than three decades, China's ruling Communist Party
experienced one of the greatest political crises. A rapidly spreading outbreak
of the new coronavirus was a "huge danger and threat" to social
stability, Chinese President Xi Jinping cautioned top party officials in a
later publicly-published internal address.
Yet with new domestic infections near zero, China declared
victory over a virus that is still struggling to curb. Newly optimistic and
prone to criticism that it initially covered up the outbreak, China's
leadership is now trying to recast the pandemic as a political victory by
claiming that its centralized, top-down government structure made it ideally
suitable for controlling and handling the virus; official figures estimate the
virus claimed less than 5,000 lives in China.
The way the Chinese treated the coronavirus is combined with
technology, culture and very efficient policy collaboration, "said Wang
Huiyao, president of China and Globalization's Beijing-based think tank
center." That's something unprecedented in Western countries.
Emboldened, China has also taken a bellicose approach to
countries that question its response to coronavirus. China has lobbied European
Union officials to tone down or delete terminology that explains Beijing's misinformation
during the pandemic — a tale first published in The New York Times. On
Facebook, Chinese diplomats harassed those opposing China's pandemic treatment.
China has been particularly aggressive in countering with no
evidence from senior U.S. officials, including President Trump and Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo, that the virus originated — perhaps accidentally — in a
laboratory in Wuhan , China. Scientists like U.S. Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Government 's leading infectious disease specialist, the
novel coronavirus has probably developed in nature. "The main aim for some
U.S. politicians seeking to trick others with their obvious lies is to transfer
their own failure responsibility," a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry
said last month. Recently, Chinese state broadcaster published a satirical
cartoon video depicting Lego characters representing China and the US, with
America's Statue of Liberty making conflicting comments and tossing insults as
Chinese mask-wearing terra cotta warrior patiently explained.
One of the most surprising aspects of Chinese diplomacy at
this particular time is how undiplomatic it is, "said Elizabeth Economy,
Asia's Foreign Relations Council Chair.
When Australia joined the U.S. In calling for an
investigation into the source of the virus in China, Hu Xijin, the editor-in -
chief of the Global Times State Tabloid, likened Australia to chewing gum stuck
in the sole of China's shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it
off." "You don't know how aggressive, how unreasonable the West can
be in making up their fictions," Hu said.
A colorful provocateur promoting the more aggressive
diplomacy of his country, Hu defended China's hawkish actions as a natural
response to American aggression. China is getting better and better, while
America's potential success is not guaranteed. "When the U.S. continually
mocks China, can you expect us to say nothing?
Although adopting a more combative tone may have found
support among its own more nationalistic people, Beijing may not have predicted
the current global backlash.
Faulty Chinese medical products, including face masks, led
some European countries to reject Chinese donations. Racism against thousands
of Africans living in Guangzhou, China's southern capital, has washed away much
of Beijing 's goodwill built up on the African continent.
Several American lawmakers have argued that the U.S. should
waive China's sovereign legal immunity, allowing at least two states suing
China for coronavirus damage to go to court.
China changed the blame by accusing the U.S. military of
first taking the virus to Wuhan when it played in sports games last October
without evidence. The claim got traction on the mainland.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry known
for his bellicose Twitter activity, indicated many times that coronavirus did
not originate in China. State media outlets have consistently accused the U.S.
of downplaying the outbreak.
We believe Americans came to the Wuhan seafood market in
October when military sports games were being held in Wuhan, said one former
vendor on the Wuhan market recording the first cluster of cases of human
coronavirus. The seller won't use his name because he wants to open a new store
and won't be affiliated with the market. Americans are behind it, he said.
Hind China's offensive rhetoric is a deep sense of sadness
that other countries have ignored their role in combating the coronavirus
pandemic.
People in China feel a sense of pride because they had to
sacrifice and the leadership in the [Chinese Communist] party led them
successfully, said Susan Shirk, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
who is now chair of the 21st Century China Center at California University, San
Diego.
Others feel a nefarious purpose behind China bashing. The
real aim behind fanning ethnic discrimination flames and assigning blame is to
demonize China and curb the rise of China, wrote Lin Yueqin, a scholar at the
state-run Chinese Social Sciences Academy in April.
Ultimately, what might motivate the strident messaging of
Chinese leaders is less a desire to impress other countries, and more one to
convince their own people that China stands up to American criticism.
Whether the Chinese negotiators are misguided, or they
actually do their best to avoid the foreign narrative from creeping into
domestic Chinese discourse and undermining the Chinese Communist Party 's
legitimacy. And I'd bet the second is probably more likely than the first,
"said Economy of Foreign Relations Council.
While assigning blame might score points with populist
elements in both China and the U.S., an important geopolitical relationship
costs.
The outbreak at home was a major domestic problem for party
leadership, and I think they went overdrive to provide domestic assistance,
Shirk, who is writing a book called Overreach, about Chinese politics and
diplomacy. But what happened is they overdo it in a way that causes them this
international backlash. And it's counterproductive.
Instead of collaborating on a global health crisis,
according to U.S.-China relations experts, both countries are now further
apart.
The situation has deteriorated so much that turning things
around now and restoring the degree of international confidence that China had
previously enjoyed is unlikely. Even the most talented, cultivated and practiced
diplomats, Zi Zhongyun, a widely respected U.S.-China relations scholar at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, wrote late April, would be challenging.
In China, voices of reason are increasingly censored and
silenced, leaving only those at the extremes of the political spectrum, Zi
lamented.
And as for online thugs ignorant and shameless, she wrote,
well, they get a free pass.
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