Senior Fellow at Canadian Think Tank: Global Crisis Caused by the CCP Regime

(Minghui.org) As of May 1, 2020, the coronavirus has infected over 3.3 million people worldwide and caused more than 235,000 deaths in this devastating global pandemic. World leaders across continents have been reprimanding the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for its initial cover up and ongoing misinformation about the disease. 

On April 14, more than 100 China experts and senior political figures signed an open letter describing the CCP’s cover-up of the coronavirus as “China’s Chernobyl Moment.” Addressed to Chinese citizens and friends of China, the letter begins, “The current global crisis has been caused by the [CCP] regime so many of you have been tolerating or supporting for decades.”

The Chinese Embassy in Canada harshly denounced the letter on April 19, labeling it as “anti-China.” Government officials and authors of the letter refuted the claim, adding that the response is typical of the regime’s practice of suppressing freedom of speech.

Similar to the CCP’s response to the letter, China analysts have observed a global propaganda war with the CCP regime as it faces increasing condemnation for the damage it has caused with the coronavirus.

One of the authors of the letters, Shuvaloy Majumdar, Senior Fellow of the Canadian think tank, the Macdonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy, was recently interviewed by Minghui.org. He spoke about the current situation.

The CCP Is a “Master of Deception”

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute is the largest independent think tank in Ottawa, with the aim to “make poor public policy intolerable... by proposing thoughtful alternatives through non-partisan and independent research and commentary.” Mr. Majumdar said, “The world wants to see China succeed, but the CCP does not take criticism and shirks responsibilities instead. That was why such an open letter was needed to address the issue.

“And as we have seen, the crisis that has started in Wuhan and was badly managed for months, badly communicated and poorly coordinated with the world, has now grown into a global pandemic and a global economic crisis. I think the opening of the letter was designed for an audience of Chinese people who I think the world shares frustrations alongside.

“In China, we saw that the national, the communist party, sought to silence doctors that were trying to tell the truth and other voices that were trying to be helpful to the world and to other Chinese people on the threat that this pandemic was to the country.”

The crisis happened because of the system of communism in China. Majumdar said that the regime “is vastly repressive of its minorities. It obviously does not embrace free speech. It crushes the notion of any private property, even those are constitutional obligations.”

In addition, with the help of Western countries over the past few decades, China has grown to be the second largest economy in the world and believes that “all of the world's political, military, and economic arteries should flow to China.” But China's expansion is often achieved through deception.

Majumdar called the communist regime a “master of deception” and said that its “deception goes far deeper because they have weaponized the supply chains that China has produced for the world, they seek to exploit trade for their security advantage, and their political position in the world. And that is very troubling.”

Disruption of Global Norms

Majumdar said the CCP has historically employed coverups to distract “from the real issues that would help the world heal faster and the economy recover more decisively.” By doing so, it is “disrupting the idea of global norms on those basic principles.”

Recently, there have been many media reports about China hoarding personal protection equipment (PPE) without telling the world about the pandemic. Majumdar said such a strategy began late last year when the CCP was considering whether PPE and pharmaceuticals could be used as leverage for trade negotiation with the United States.

“It is unsurprising to see that as they knew and sought to control the crisis in Wuhan,” Majumdar explained. “They started reordering their manufacturing hubs and accepting and purchasing PPE around... while lying to the world about the problem that was spreading.”

Revisiting Relationship with the CCP

Majumdar reflected on his changing view of China. “The optimism for many years, by myself included, was that greater economic engagement with China, the development of its country, the literally creating more literacy and services for its people would also create greater demand for the rule of law, for property rights, for free speech, for freedom of religion, all the things that are essential to succeed. But what has happened? All good wishes, but what has happened and become even more real...is that actually the Chinese Communist Party has sought to partner with the world for its own prosperity, so that one day it could dominate the world with its own world order.”

Mr. Majumdar said Western nations need to “understand this ongoing threat by the irresponsible and reckless actions of the communist party. Have greater impetus to think through, how to partner with each other and how to engage China without creating any space for submitting to China.”

But the CCP’s influence has gone beyond individual nations. “We’ve seen it’s not just the WHO [World Health Organization], we've seen a very gradual and sophisticated approach by China across the multilateral system, whether it’s their chairmanship of INTERPOL, the international criminal police organization, whether it's the relationship with  the WHO, with the International Civil Aviation Organization, which deals with commercial airline traffic rules and regulations. [And] how they invest in UN peacekeeping missions on priorities that are important to the Belt and Road Initiative,” he added.

By doing so, Majumdar observed, the CCP has compromised the integrity and credibility of such organizations’ leadership for its own benefit. For example, “at the World Health Organization, we see a policy setting body, a regulatory setting body, and a policy implementing body. They [CCP officials] do these three things in the realm of global public health. They compromised at the very top,” he added.

Therefore, Mr. Majumdar believes it is time to reevaluate these issues, both the relationship with the CCP as well as its influence on these organizations.

A Global Propaganda War

Regarding the Chinese Embassy’s response to the open letter, Majumdar said it was “verbally abusive, poorly written, almost comically presented.”

Canada is not alone in being targeted by the CCP. “Chinese diplomats around the world are waging an aggressive disinformation campaign... aimed at controlling the narrative about the origins of the coronavirus,” reported MacroBusiness on April 30 in an article titled “China launches global propaganda war.”

This is happening across many countries in a style referred to as “Wolf Warrior” style of diplomacy. “Chinese envoys have been especially aggressive on Twitter, which they are using to attack, intimidate and silence Western journalists, lawmakers and think tank scholars—essentially anyone who contradicts China’s official version of events,” the article observed.

The article cited a few such examples. One case involved the Brussels-based news outlet Politico Europe that reported on China’s disinformation of the coronavirus pandemic. Shortly after the report was out, Chinese officials acted quickly and threatened to withhold medical supplies to Europe unless the report’s contents were modified.

Another example was an article on April 15 in Bild, a popular German newspaper. Under the title “What China Owes Us So Far,” the Bild article suggested that China should pay Germany €150 billion ($162 billion) in reparations for the coronavirus pandemic, to cover losses sustained by small businesses, tourism, and other industries.

The Chinese Embassy in Berlin responded and called Bild racist. Instead of expressing submission, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief refuted with his own letter titled “You Are Endangering the Entire World.”

Addressed to the top CCP leader, the letter said, “You rule by surveillance... You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country.

“You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later,” the letter concluded.