Chinese leaders love to use the phrase ‘win-win’, but they actually hope to win twice and leave other nations in positions of relative disadvantage. The Chinese Communist party’s behaviour during the Covid-19 crisis is a case in point.
In the midst of the global pandemic, the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of State Security have conducted cyber-attacks against hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and medical research facilities developing Covid-19 therapies and vaccines. Triumphing in the race for a vaccine would help China emerge from the crisis in a position of relative advantage economically and psychologically, while reinforcing the idea that China’s authoritarian mercantilist system is superior to democratic free market systems. Win-win.
After its cover-up of the initial Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan, the CCP then engaged in heavy-handed ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ — so called after the Wolf Warrior Chinese propaganda action films. China’s diplomats and agents have used disinformation not only to obscure its responsibility for the pandemic, but also to portray European and American responses to the crisis as indicative of the ineptitude, corruption and incompetence of their democracies.
If the UK dances to China’s tune, the world will be less free, less prosperous and less safe
When Australian leaders had the temerity to suggest an investigation into the origins of the pandemic, the editor of CCP-backed newspaper the Global Times, Hu Xijin, described Australia as ‘a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes’ and suggested that it was time to ‘find a stone to rub it off’. This month, after the UK criticised China for extinguishing freedom in Hong Kong, Chairman Xi’s ambassador in London, Liu Xiaoming, threatened ‘consequences’ for Britain. He chided: ‘If you dance to the tune of other countries, how can you call yourself Great Britain?’ But if the UK and other countries dance to China’s tune and succumb to intimidation, the world will be less free, less prosperous and less safe.
The UK is more than capable of acting on its own initiative and of leading others by its example.
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