China’s attempts to manipulate and control the narrative surrounding the coronavirus are becoming intolerable, and it seems other parts of the world are finally starting to catch on.
In a strong rebuke last week, the editor-in-chief of Germany’s largest newspaper, Bild, responded to China’s disinformation campaign by reminding his readers that China is not only responsible for the coronavirus but for countless other human rights violations, as well.
Addressing Chinese President Xi Jinping, Julian Reichelt wrote, “You, your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn’t respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace.”
“You rule by surveillance,” Reichelt continued. “You wouldn’t be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country. You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them — and with them, the rest of the world.”
Reichelt is exactly right: China attempted to hide the virus from the world in the same way its communist government has tried to hide its incessant human rights abuses for years. And, on the rare occasion when the regime is confronted by the global community, China responds with a series of lies and absurdities. This is what happened a few years ago when the United Nations asked Xi to explain its internment of Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, and this is what’s happening now with the coronavirus.
Reichelt’s open letter to Xi is a hopeful sign that China won’t get off as easily as it has in the past. But if China is going to be held accountable, the rest of the world must join the effort. Germany’s government should step up and echo Reichelt’s warning, and the rest of Europe should follow suit. And if China continues to lie about and hide what it knew about this virus and when, there should be economic consequences.
The United States will likely need to lead this charge, and there’s a growing number of Republicans in Congress who would like to see us do just that. But we can’t be the only ones. China will simply dismiss the accusations, as it has for the past few weeks.
China will not, however, be able to ignore the condemnation of multiple countries. Xi is obsessed with his regime’s global image, and if he believes it is in danger, he will respond, perhaps not with the entire truth, but at least with something less ridiculous and counterproductive. Even that would be more than what we have right now.
Xi’s party should pay a high price for the origination, spread, and continued cover-ups of this pandemic. And that will require a coordinated, global effort to hold China’s Communist Party accountable.
