In a recent interview US President Donald Trump invited sharp criticism by calling coronavirus (COVID-19) a 'Chinese virus'. The official response from Chinese government too was critical. But did Trump really made a mistake? Looking at the sequence of events right from the first reported outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, it appears he was not.
As per the reports Chinese government was informed by the local authorities in Wuhan, of a possible virus outbreak, in the first week of December. But the communist government paid no attention. It was when a local doctor's video became viral on social media in which he accepted the presence of a new virus in Wuhan, that Chinese authorities woke up and immediately put a blanket ban on all news from Wuhan. The whistleblower doctor was never heard of again.
In January, China even evaded WHO's request for sending a medical team to Wuhan and informed them that everything is under control. No steps were taken to check movement in and out of Wuhan. All international flights remained operational. It was this period when lakhs of infected Chinese people moved out of Wuhan to their work locations in Europe particularly in Florence and Prata, Italy where they are engaged in numbers in the local fashion industry.
Italy was first G7 nation to join China's OBOR and hosts the largest population of Chinese in Europe. Still Chinese government did not inform Italy in time about coronavirus spread. Instead there were shameless and propagandist 'Hug me, I am Chinese not a virus' campaigns in Italy against alleged discrimination. The unsuspecting Italians were the first European victims of coronavirus.
Since the outbreak turned into a pandemic, several theories were buzzing around the world on its possible origin from Chinese biological weapon to US military operation. There were also speculations that the virus originated from the consumption of bats and pangolins in China. Netizens are also smelling conspiracy in the fact that the virus easily reached far away countries in Europe and America but neighbouring Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing with much greater population and density than Wuhan escaped unscathed.
Whatever might be the real cause of the outbreak, one thing is certain that communist government in China proved to be totally irresponsible. First it withheld the information about the virus, then allowed it to spread globally by taking no steps for containment. Italy now has the most deaths of any country, with more than 7000 lives lost to the pandemic. Neighbouring Spain is second with around 4000 deaths. Global count stands close to 24000. Who should be held responsible for this massacre if not China?
After two months of lockdown, Wuhan is back to normalcy. All restrictions on people movement have been removed. Parts of Great Wall have been reopened. Its Business as usual in Beijing and Shanghai. Above all, Chinese factories are in overdrive to supply their cheap medicines, medical equipments, face masks and ventilators around the world. Chinese economy that was in worst shape in decades, is inching back to normal.
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