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The coronavirus has changed our lives forever. Global resentment is growing against China as the facts unfold, and many countries now hold the Communist regime responsible for the criminal negligence that led to the viral spread. An Italian journalist, Francesca Marino, even said that China should be sued for war damage citing the global recession after the blockades.
However, due to a multi-billion dollar connectivity program called the Border and Roads Initiative (BRI), China continues to take advantage of weak nations with armed medical assistance and greater strategic depth, while the rest of the world laments liberties and lost economies. As China embarks on the purchase of troublesome and shrinking assets and stocks, countries like the United States and Greece could prepare to prepare for new waves of economic refugees as a result of demographic changes led by the coronavirus.
They say that a tiger never changes its stripes. The London-based Henry Jackson Society, while evaluating China’s possible guilt in the spread of pandemics, has identified ten charges of infectious disease control violations, some of which occurred after the SARS outbreak. As we speak, China’s wet markets are back in business in no time, while the rest of the world is preparing for multiple relapses and waves of the coronavirus outbreak. As with SARS, the world needlessly lost significant lives to the coronavirus as China routinely hides facts, silences doctors and whistleblowers, and recklessly continues manufacturing related to BRI and the cross-border movement.
Archive image of Chinese President Xi Jinping. AP
Once called the conduit of prosperity, BRI for countries like Iran and Italy has become the vehicle of terror that brings economies to their knees. Ali Reza Raeesi, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Health, singles out Chinese students and workers for spreading the coronavirus in Iran. A member of Iran’s COVID-19 Committee has stated that in Tehran alone, 23,000 people were hospitalized for acute respiratory infections between February 19 and March 20 and only 9,000 were discharged during the same period. During the same time, the Golistan province with only 1.9 million inhabitants indicated an astonishing number of 327 doctors and nurses who tested positive for coronavirus. March 17 Los Angeles Times reported that Iran harbored 90 percent of the 18,000 coronavirus cases in Western Asia. Given the magnitude of the crisis, Iran, for the first time since the Khomeini revolution in 1979, applied for a loan from the IMF.
Gilgit-Baltistan, known to the world as a leading position in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has also become the epicenter of coronavirus infections in Pakistan. Ignoring Indian claims about the region, China is building rails and roads and laying pipelines through Gilgit to import energy resources from West Asia and Africa. According to the Pakistan National Institute of Health, Gilgit reported 36.7 cases of coronavirus per million on March 21 compared to the national average of 3.07. Almost all Gilgit patients, made up of religious students and pilgrims, contracted the infection in Iran. Baluchistan, which is a transit point for Gilgit residents, was put on high alert after passengers in its quarantine centers were suspected of infecting the local population.
Pakistan, while neglecting local concerns, wants to press ahead with the completion of CPEC. Shafqat Inqalabi, a local author and historian, calls China’s presence in Gilgit and Muzaffarabad an invasion. He says: “China, which is using the coronavirus pandemic to fulfill its global ambitions, is illegally exploiting Gilgit’s land routes and natural resources. If locals do not get jobs or income from CPEC, why should they allow them to return? Chinese workers, especially because they could be potential carriers of the virus? Tahira Jabeen, a prominent Gilgit activist says: “The conduit has brought both comfort and trouble. In addition to Chinese workers, it also brings narcotics and terrorism epidemics to Gilgit. Nagar Valley across CPEC is the most affected by the coronavirus and the government has closed many villages here. We are constantly exposed to the inherent vulnerabilities of a global structure that aims to serve Beijing. “Gilgit’s other neighbors like Kazakhstan and Tajikistan border trade zones and transport links with China have been closed to circumvent the pand emia.
Optimistic due to increased strategic influence, China is using BRI to intimidate Western democracies and to hijack decisions in multilateral organizations like the United Nations. Ethiopia, which currently heads the UN World Health Organization (WHO), is a prominent beneficiary of BRI. Who sought the help of China to become WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia is believed to protect Chinese interests by underestimating person-to-person coronavirus transmission and diverting countries to keep borders open. While branding China a victim of the coronavirus, he calls President Xi Jinping a hero for playing the generosity policy, not realizing how many countries admonished China for sending faulty test kits and masks.
China’s obsession with installing friendly regimes is undermining democratic institutions in many BRI member countries. The Pakistani regime, for example, often finds itself suppressing voices criticizing CPEC. China’s reliance on fighting pandemics cushions Pakistan’s influence to negotiate debt terms and, like Sri Lanka, could eventually result in asset forfeiture. Other BRI members who owe large portions of GDP and sovereignty to China include Djibouti, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, the Maldives, Mongolia, and Montenegro.
Like a Trojan horse, BRI is invading and inflicting economic terror on vulnerable neighbors. China’s growing demand for animal protein has turned BRI members into trafficking routes for a variety of exotic animals, accelerating the extinction of wildlife. Entangled in a debt trap, these countries would not respond adequately as new pathogens emerge in future pandemics.
If past behavior is a predictor of the future, then the world should not allow an irresponsible country like China to employ BRI to expand its control over global supply chains and leave the West to suffer the dire consequences of its policies and practices. Countries that want to immunize their economies must separate from the BRI module and seek help from international consortia to rebuild local manufacturing and human resources.
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