Novel virus or strategy to rule the world?

China’s global standing has suffered a major blow over the coronavirus pandemic that is on a march around the world.

Not least because the disease originated from Wuhan, one of China’s manufacturing hubs and a large city of 11 million, but that its initial handling suggested that something went awry.

On December 30 last year, Dr Li Wenliang reportedly sent out a warning to fellow Chinese medics about the novel coronavirus.

The 34-year-old said he had noticed seven cases of a virus that he thought looked like Sars — the virus that caused a global pandemic in 2003 — and advised them to take precautions to avoid infection.

Dr Li would be summoned to the Public Security Bureau four days later and asked — more or less ordered — to sign a letter in which he was accused of “making false comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order”.

And as fate would have it, he would die of coronavirus on February 7, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger in China and consternation around the world.

It would take a turn for the worse as the virus incubated and spread. Kenya has not been spared this dark ignominy.

NEGLIGENCE

Xiao Qiang, a research scientist in Berkeley, United States, was monitoring China’s official statements about a new coronavirus then spreading through Wuhan.

He noticed something disturbing, an analysis by The Atlantic, one of the oldest and most respected magazines in the US, says.

According to it, statements made by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations agency that advises the world on handling health crises, often echoed China’s messages.

“Particularly at the beginning, it was shocking when I again and again saw WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, when he spoke to the Press … almost quoting what I read in the Chinese government’s statements,” Mr Xiao told The Atlantic in an interview.

In the meantime, the virus was festering and readying for a grim global march that has by now claimed more than 200,000 lives and crippled economies around the world.

China has to take the blame for the spread of this virus and the ravage it has caused the world. Beijing should have listened when Li spoke.

If they did not respect him enough, they should have never misled the WHO and led the world into believing that the threat was minimal.

POWER PLAY

Is it any wonder that there are conspiracy theories claiming China all along knew what the impact of this virus would be and that this was a dark strategy to control the world?

The Chinese have, over the past two decades, extended their hold on the global economy. For developing countries, China has extended many large loans, and so they are beholden and afraid of speaking on an even plane.

The developed world, on the other hand, is also beholden to China, which has over the years positioned itself as an efficient manufacturing hub.

David John Kilcullen, an Australian author, strategist and counterinsurgency expert, told Bloomberg in a March 30 interview: “Chinese [war] strategists are avoiding our conventional strength by going around us, outside the box.”

Some believe Covid-19 is just another global disease, some a Chinese virus and others Beijing’s dark strategy to rule the world. So, what is it?

Ms Kibibi is a criminal psychologist. [email protected].