By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, May 18: More than 60 nations have joined in support for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive” probe into the “zoonotic source” of the Covid-19 and its spread towards becoming a pandemic, ahead of the ongoing 73rd session of the World Health Assembly held in Geneva (May 18-19).
The draft supported by nations including Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the UK, Russia, Canada, Turkey and India among others, have called for an inquiry under the leadership of the World Health Organisation.
The draft motion stated it, “requests the Director General to … identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts, including through efforts such as scientific and collaborative field missions, which will enable targeted interventions and a research agenda to reduce the risk of similar events.”
The motion supported by many including all BRICS members except China is set to ruffle diplomatic ties between Beijing and other nations in the sub-continent. China has already flexed its muscles in the South China Sea sinking a Vietnamese vessel, engaged in scuffles along the borders with India (Tibet) as well as issuing veiled threat of economic repercussions with few nations, ahead of the WHO assembly.
The draft, however, does not mention China or Wuhan where it was first detected, leading to many suggesting that Beijing’s tactics have managed to bring a favourable outcome going forward. Rajesh Rajagopalan
Professor of International Politics, JNU told The Print, “This is a very watered-down resolution, which neither names China nor does it call for a probe into the geographic origin of the coronavirus. The draft resolution merely seeks an evaluation of the international response to the pandemic.
“Unsurprisingly, it seems China has managed to browbeat various member-states into coming up with a resolution for an investigation which may end up blaming other countries for their poor response to the Covid-19 outbreak, thus holding China’s totalitarian model as a success story.”
2 Responses
When we are talking about the COVID-19 that broke out in China, nobody wants to discriminate against the Chinese people. There is much speculation about the origin of this pandemic. But so far no one has been able to prove his suspicions. However, the fact is that the Chinese Communist government has concealed the outbreak of this disease in Wuhan for several days or even weeks.
I was amazed that some Chinese felt discriminated against very soon when COVID-19 was reported in the west. There was objective newsreport about the COVID-19 pandemic that broke out in Wuhan. But I have never seen any sign of discrimination.
Let me now mention a strategy by the Chinese Communist Government. There is a strategy paper from her on how they want to influence the world’s population in their favor. They send their people with different special educational trainings to different countries, who should try to get in touch with people of different psychological constitution, education, social understanding and status there and then influence them imperceptibly in favor of the Chinese Communist Government.
Discrimination is now a very sensitive issue here in the West and especially in Germany. Therefore, I am sure that the Chinese Communist government has hired people to spread such discrimination complaints so that the issue of COVID-19 is not linked too closely to China. The spread of COVID-19 could at least have been minimized if the communist government had reacted immediately and quickly when the disease broke out in Wuhan in December 2019 or earlier. That was wrong, and you have to be allowed to say that.
When criticism of the Chinese communist government is voiced, the Chinese government tries to present it as an insult and defamation of the Chinese nation and discrimination against the entire Chinese people. Since the Chinese in China have no access to media other than their communist media or the media affiliated with them, most Chinese have to believe what they hear. In addition, most Chinese are afraid to speak about the facts that would contradict the government’s statements. When we talk about COVID-19 and China, we are not discriminating against the Chinese people. The allegations are only against the Chinese Communist government. The Chinese people cannot be held responsible for this pandemic.
We therefore do a good job when we all, i.e. Governments, politicians, economists, reporters, and everyone who appreciates democracy and human rights wholeheartedly requires the Chinese Communist Government to respect human rights. It is really very important that human rights such as freedom of the press and speech, freedom of expression, democracy etc. are respected in China. The Chinese who have informed about the outbreak of this disease have been silenced by the Chinese Communist government. That is why we do not discriminate against the Chinese people in our demand for human rights in China. We are even speaking for them.
Different people have different definitions of success. Some define success with Hermes ties, Louis Vuitton bags and access to Citation flights. Others define success as living a balanced, meaningful and fulfilling life. Human society is colorful mishmash of different type of personalities. The challenge is co-existing and figuring out what type of life one wants to lead and when enough is enough.
In this particular case, it would seem a simple virus has managed to hold large swaths of humanity hostage to taking a larger chunk of the proverbial pie that is global existence. Something to think about. Would this make this virus “sentient”? The jungles and permafrost hold a whole array of organisms that we have no knowledge about.