What is the point of discussing about China’s role in the Corona-affected world? What do you know about China? – A Bengali Perspective

In the context of the global spread of CoronaVirus pandemic, one of the most discussed and debated topics has been the connection between China and Corona. The questions that concern doctors, scientists, experts and common people from India to America are varied and extensive: Was China the source of this virus? Has China spread the virus globally in a planned way? Why did China remain silent during the first month of its growth? How effectively has the communist State power of China dealt with the disease in its own territories? What are the exact numbers of Corona affected people and resultant deaths in China? Is the global spread of Corona China’s successful weapon of biological warfare to establish hegemony in international politics and economy? Is China’s exaggerated role in the spread of Corona pandemic a conspiracy hatched by USA’s propaganda? What has been the actual motive behind China’s liberal assistance to many countries to fight against the pandemic? In the present net-world connected through electronic and social media, Indians, and particularly Bengalis, are forming their opinions about the Chinese connection in Corona pandemic and criticising or praising China’s role in the process by forwarding, knowing or unknowingly, data, information, opinions, comments, mimes, songs, videos, and so on.

At the outset, there has been a major hubbub to trace the origins of this ‘Chinese Virus’, sorry, Covid-19 or CoronaVirus! We have come across wild speculations and theories in the last few months in this regard – whether it was born in the laboratory at Wuhan or American soldiers left the virus in the town while visiting Wuhan on late 2019, or even whether China made a mess of the lab-virus stolen by Chinese spies from American laboratory while experimenting with it, and so on. But whatever be its origins, there is no doubt about the fact that the growth of the virus was first noticed in Wuhan in the last months of 2019 although we have no idea of actual dates. In December when the virus began to spread widely in a few places in China, the world was completely unaware of the danger about to come to engulf the global public. Even when China revealed the matter first to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in late December, the latter did not understand the significance of its forthcoming impact requiring necessary precaution and alertness globally and took almost a month to declare Corona an international crisis. The WHO as well as the Western powers probably remained complacent because of the lack of information about the disease thanks to China’s classical secrecy and the virus’s initial spread only in certain Asian countries, not worthy of the First World’s attention. As February rolled on and Italy and Spain fell prey to Corona, the countries of Western Europe began to realise the follies of the delay in appreciating the gravity of the crisis and taking preventive measures. Despite this imminent danger, the USA and Great Britain probably acted out of their callous sense of superiority and remained indifferent to the pandemic till the middle of March and rose to the occasion only when it was too late. Time will say what price they will have to pay for this

strange response to Corona pandemic!

With the spread of Corona pandemic, we have become acquainted with two new terms– ‘lockdown’ and ‘social distancing’. Here most of the countries of the world have followed the Chinese model to combat the spread of the disease at different stages. The Government of India, and particularly the Government of West Bengal, have also effectively implemented these intertwined processes, eliciting WHO’s appreciation. It is anybody’s guess what would happen to

a country of 1.3 billion people with inadequate medical infrastructure in case of mass infection when the developed western countries with so-called developed medical service have virtually failed to combat such a situation. That is why the only way to fight it is to prevent the disease from spreading far and wide by strictly following social distancing and cleanliness measures in a state of lockdown. China has so far showed to the world the success of lockdown measures and

following this model should prove useful to every affected country whether you support or oppose her. Additionally, China has started sending medical equipment as also providing financial support to quite a few countries as part of her ‘concern’ to save the world from this disaster.

Yet, critics and detractors have found shadows of distractions and conspiracies behind every act of China in the context of this global pandemic. They complain that the virus was manufactured by China and that was why it provided the information about it to the world much later deliberately to strengthen its position in this biological warfare. That China has been able to tackle the spread and impact of the virus so fast and successfully both in quantity and quality is due to the fact that it kept its infrastructure ready to combat it well ahead. Similarly, being the first country to declare the number of infected and deaths, China elicited the initial sympathy of a large section of the global population. On the other hand, America and its allied countries have held China directly responsible for the global pandemic and incited many countries to lodge complaints with the United Nations or the International Court of Justice against China’s duplicity and hypocrisy. Many also see in China’s assistance to some countries an attempt to ‘cover up’ its Corona conspiracy. Anti-Chinese forces and experts across the world are quite sure that a hegemonic China would descend as a controlling power in the post-Corona international politics and economy.

The above debates concerning China’s role in the Corona-world have also intruded the Indian alias Bengali life. The China craze of Bengali bhadraloks and intellectuals has been well-known thanks to the long tradition of leftist/communist ideology, movement and governance in West Bengal, although there has been a noticeable change and slump in this tradition of pro- Chinese stand even among educated Bengalis. Yet, because of China’s ‘communist’ status, Bengalis have also started to judge China in the context of Corona with their fad or bitterness, loyalty or hatred. On the one hand, she/he is fascinated by China’s speedy and effective response to the Corona epidemic; on the other, she/he has expressed suspicion at such a fast creation of necessary public health infrastructure to combat it. One group of Bengalis have rejected the conspiracy theory labelled against China and have instead sympathised with her as the victim of western conspiracy. Others have held China as the sole conspirator of this global biological warfare. Some have ridiculed the China-haters for using Chinese goods in their daily life while others called for a global boycott of China and her goods. Some even have come up with the advice that it is high time that we should think of the efficacy of the democratic state system, given the success of China, a closed socialist state, to combat CoronaVirus so fast. What I suggest in this context is that let us not think so much about China, rather stay at home and think constructively in our fight against Corona. Why? – Let me tell you very briefly and conclude.

Let me first ask you a simple question – How much do you know about China? The answer is simpler – You nearly know nothing about it. Yes, in this age of free and open world of the internet just as you are a child in the hands of nature, your knowledge of China is even lesser than a child. The reason is obvious – China is a closed State. It is said that in 1949 imperial China was replaced by the rise of what is called Peoples’ Republic of China or ‘communist’ China. But if you study world history since then a little bit – from China’s annexation of Tibet to her big brotherly operations in the Asian neighbourhood, you get to know the nature of ‘communist imperialism’. Within China, the ‘communist’ State has successfully converted the ‘people’ into loyal ‘subjects’. After the French Revolution of 1789, when Napoleon came to power, he was said to have adopted two principles of the Revolution – equality and fraternity, rejecting the most important one, liberty. Mao Tse Tung did the same thing in China after 1949. Don’t think that I have forgotten Hitler, Stalin or the Taliban. But we know so little of China; hence I am restricting myself to what little we know of her for certain. The Chinese people enjoy

development at the cost of freedom. There is no place of debate; no freedom of the press, the State decides the expressions of the citizens or the films its citizens are eligible to watch; the so-

called open net-world of whatsapp-facebook-social media is thoroughly controlled by the State;China is miles ahead of the rest of the world in information secrecy; and there are hundred other methods and machines of producing loyal and good citizens. Bengalis must remember the

Jantar-Mantar of Satyajit Ray’s celebrated film Hirak Rajar Deshe. Present Chinese premier, Xi Jinping, has elevated the Bengali intellectual’s much-preferred word ‘Fascism’ to a new height, almost to the extent of an art. Hitler or the Taliban hanged people openly to frighten you. There is nothing of this sort in China. If there are any detractors in China, the fake Dr. Hajra of Satyajit Ray’s Sonar Kella would make you vanish in hundreds and thousands. There was only one slip in the entire history of ‘communist’ China – Tian-an-Men Square incident in May 1989, when the Chinese army opened fire against innocent democratic protesters including students, and the news somehow leaked to the world. The injury and death toll – we still do not know. China is far ahead of the rest of the world in the production of adulterated, fake and pirated stuff, but nobody

can deny that both Britain, the cathedral of imperialism and America, its greatest global player, have succumbed to ‘communist’ China’s new economic imperialism.

But remember, whatever I have said above, is based on facts and information I could collect from sources from outside China and from the statements of freedom-loving Chinese friends either banished from China or fled the country to settle down in the rest of the world. Then how could you get hold of the information from within China? There are very few options, if there is any at all! In fact, we still have to depend on what the ‘communist’ State of China would tell us – truth or lie is immaterial there. Hence there is no point thinking much about China in this Corona-devastated world. Rather, remember the mantra of Corona-prevention – don’t be too panicky about Corona (China!), but always remain careful and alert. Never trust rumour or fake

news (China!), rather make your safety and security flawless.

Let me conclude with what C.L.R James’s immortally commented about cricket: ‘What do they know of cricket that only cricket know?’ What do you know of China that only China know?

Kausik Bandyopadhyay

Professor, Department of History, West Bengal State University

Member of National Advisory Board, Asia in Global Affairs

Stay Safe# Physical Distancing# Social Solidarity#