World News: A China with Two Faces

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Sunday, 12 April 2020 14:19

Written by Olivier Longhi

For hiding the appearance and the danger of the coronavirus in the first hours of its spread, the Chinese regime confirmed that it was indeed a dictatorship whose modern appearances masked the bases of the regime: authority, mistrust and worship of secrecy.

Courted by the great Western powers for the immense economic opportunities it conceals, having become one of the world's leading importers and exporters, pillar of globalization, China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, would almost makes you forget that it was, again, a dictatorship.

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Certainly, converted to the market economy, but a dictatorship that the coronavirus crisis cruelly reminds us of. How? 'Or' What ? The most cynical would have mentioned reason of state, that theorized by Machiavelli and put into practice by Richelieu to explain the silence that surrounded the discovery and spread of the virus.

Let there be no mistake. To conceal such a health accident does not arise from it, but rather from cold and calculated manipulations that one finds only in seasoned dictatorships, as peaceful and attractive as they may appear or want to appear in the eyes of the world.

Secret, Image and Success

Because behind market socialism hides a country caught in the grip of an authoritarian regime from which nothing filters. So, what democracy worthy of the name, respectful of these citizens and the countries that surround it or trade with it would you have such a secret? It is up to everyone to answer this question in terms of their own convictions, but the answer seems to be found.

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Admittedly, there is nothing exceptional in asserting that despite a material comfort comparable, for nearly 400 million Chinese, to that prevailing in all Western countries, China remains a dictatorship ready to lock up, even execute, political opponents, shamelessly flouting human rights, rocked by western hypocrisy (According to Amnesty International, 1,032 people were executed in China in 2016, Le Parisian reports).

The question that arises today is why China has sought, at first in any case, to stifle the appearance and spread of this virus. The answers are multiple and for some as mysterious as the Middle Empire can be, but the first of them could be that linked to the image that the Beijing regime wants to give of its country.

The economic success of China born from the conversion to the market economy could not be marred by such a problem probably related to food practices for many obsolete, namely the consumption of pangolin flesh, wild animal which would be very fond of the Chinese population.

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Stumbling on a virus of animal origin at the unprecedented speed of propagation was in no way conceivable for Beijing and for a regime that claims to be exemplary despite rampant corruption ...

Reasons and Realism

The second reason is essential purely economic, factory country of the world, China cannot deprive its economy of the commercial and industrial relations which it established with the whole planet. And admitting that a devious, unknown, highly contagious and deadly virus could potentially defile men and goods from these lands or these factories was unimaginable.

So many reasons which pushed China to be silent and to waste precious time. The third potentially relates to the limits of the Chinese health system, often denounced as failing, China having then chosen the option of disclosure for cooperation purposes highlighting its own deficiencies in health matters.

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Many will underline how much China has cooperated and transmitted the genetic map of the virus as soon as possible so that this opens the way for treatment. But if the reasons which explain it are certainly sanitary and humanistic, they are also underpinned by an economic vocation: to act quickly so that the industrial-economic cycle, vital for China, resumes as soon as possible.

Cynicism? Chinese realism more precisely. And besides, like any self-respecting dictatorship, Chinese propaganda already glosses over the efforts made in favor of contaminated countries by sending them tons of protective masks, announcing that its factories are on the verge, if not already done, resume their activity.

Because let's not forget: China, a fierce dictatorship at first in the early hours of its creation in 1949, knew how to adapt to the world, market socialism is proof, but never wavered, the students revolted from Tiananmen Square in 1989 can testify to this.

Bio: Olivier Longhi has extensive experience in European history. A seasoned journalist with fifteen years of experience, he is currently professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held a variety of publishing positions, including Head of Agency and Chief of Publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, editor and editorial project manager, he has trained and managed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant, and a communications consultant.