China's 'Chernobyl moment'
By: Raymond J. De Sousa
Oh Canada! Way to go! Communist China is indeed the evil empire of our time.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Is the coronavirus pandemic China’s “Chernobyl moment”? A cruel and callous cover-up that will mean the beginning of the end for the Communist Party of China (CPC), as Chernobyl did for the Soviet Union in 1986?
Perhaps, though China’s communist regime is much stronger today than its Soviet counterpart was in 1986, partly because of the widespread international support it receives.
What the world can offer to the long-suffering citizens of China is an “evil empire” moment, a clarifying moral stand against a regime that commits gravely wicked abuses against its own people, including: forcing them into concentration camps, forced labour and organ harvesting; trampling on all the fundamental freedoms listed in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the norm, not the exception; having a destabilizing influence in international trade; threatening the security of its neighbours; and being responsible for the spread of this global pandemic.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan delivers his “evil empire” speech in 1983. The Chernobyl moment was suggested in an open letter written “to Chinese citizens and friends of China at home and abroad” earlier this month. Signed by a list of credible voices that speak up for international human rights, including our distinguished former attorney general Irwin Cotler, the letter asserts that “the current global crisis has been caused by the regime so many of you have been tolerating or supporting for decades.”
After it was published, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and several Conservative MPs added their signatures.
“The roots of the pandemic are in a cover-up by CCP authorities in Wuhan, Hubei province,” the open letter argues. “Under the influence of the CCP the World Health Organization first downplayed the pandemic.”
The Soviet Chernobyl moment came three years after U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s “evil empire” speech, which was, at the time, ridiculed by the international diplomatic establishment. Yet when the liberation of Europe from the Soviet empire followed six years later, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist two years after that, the courageous dissidents behind the Iron Curtain revealed that the forthright condemnation of the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” was a critical turning point.
A man reads a book in front of a board with an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping at a book store in Shenyang, China, on April 23. STR/AFP A few months ago, the likelihood of the Chinese experiencing an evil empire moment was less than nil. Recall how things stood in late 2019.
After more than a year of ramped-up religious persecution, including a prohibition on children attending religious services, the replacement of crosses in Christian houses of worship with state symbols, the demolition of churches and the imprisonment of clergy, not a single word of protest was issued by the Vatican.
After months of protests to protect democratic freedoms in Hong Kong, support for the protesters on the world stage was minimal. And not just governments were afraid to upset the CCP. For example, when the CCP propaganda machine voiced outrage after the Houston Rockets’ general manager’s tweeted support for the protesters during a basketball tour of China, the National Basketball Association went into full craven apology mode.
Demonstrators wearing protective masks hold placards and banners while standing spaced apart during a protest in the atrium of the International Finance Center Mall in Hong Kong on April 24. Justin Chin/Bloomberg If the CCP had insisted that the NBA play exhibition games in the concentration camps where one million (or more) Muslims are sent to undergo forcible Maoist-style re-education, it is not obvious that the NBA would have refused, at least until it calculated if there would be a price to be paid back home. There is, after all, a lot of money to be made in the Chinese basketball market.
China’s Communist regime got the message. Hong Kong’s “father of democracy,” Martin Lee, was arrested just days ago. If the world cannot bring itself to murmur against an evil regime when it covered up a global pandemic, then the CCP knows there will be no price to pay for throwing Hong Kong’s most respected citizens in jail.
This past week marked 500 days of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor being imprisoned in China without formal charges. David Mulroney, our former ambassador to China, bluntly calls it a “hostage-taking.” Nevertheless, last year, former prime minister Jean Chrétien and his chief associates argued that Canada should pay China’s ransom by releasing Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive arrested in Vancouver in December 2018 on an extradition request from the United States.
A man wears a mask as he walks past a mural showing a modified image of the Chinese Communist Party emblem, in Shanghai, on Jan. 28. Aly Song/Reuters Are things beginning to change due to the coronavirus? The diplomatic and corporate establishment, which has argued for 50 years that the best way to change China is to appease it, has gone quiet these last weeks as Canada’s frail elderly die because of CCP lies. Two of our former ambassadors in Beijing have called China out over its coronavirus lies — and, more importantly, the status quo mandarins at the foreign ministry have not chastised them for doing so.
The power of the evil empire speech was not that it informed people that Soviet communism was evil in itself and an evil force in global affairs. Everyone knew that, even those whose interests lay in denying it. What was novel was that the American president was willing to say it. Truth has its own power.
The novel coronavirus has brought novelties of all kinds. Might a moral clarity about the Chinese Communist party be one of them?
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Are things beginning to change due to the coronavirus? The diplomatic and corporate establishment, which has argued for 50 years that the best way to change China is to appease it, has gone quiet these last weeks as Canada’s frail elderly die because of CCP lies. Two of our former ambassadors in Beijing have called China out over its coronavirus lies — and, more importantly, the status quo mandarins at the foreign ministry have not chastised them for doing so.
The power of the evil empire speech was not that it informed people that Soviet communism was evil in itself and an evil force in global affairs. Everyone knew that, even those whose interests lay in denying it. What was novel was that the American president was willing to say it. Truth has its own power.
The novel coronavirus has brought novelties of all kinds. Might a moral clarity about the Chinese Communist party be one of them? 🇨🇦
It seems that the entire English speaking western capitalist democracy world is united as one against China on the Wuhan virus matter.
China threatens economic punishments if Australia investigates Beijing's coronavirus response
China is warning Australia that it could face economic consequences if it doesn't back off from an investigation into Beijing's handling of the coronavirus .
Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye said a probe could encourage Chinese citizens to boycott Australian products and tourists to avoid travel to the country.
“Maybe the ordinary people will say ‘Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?” Cheng said in the interview published on The Australian Financial Review.
China is the largest market for Australian wine and beef, according to the South China Morning Post .
Australian officials last week called for members of the World Health Organization to support a review into the origins of the virus. The call mirrors similar criticisms of Beijing from the United States.
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said Cheng's threats will not deter a push for transparency, calling the remarks "economic coercion."
"Australia has made a principled call for an independent review of the COVID-19 outbreak, an unprecedented global crisis with severe health, economic and social impacts," she said, according to Sky News . “We reject any suggestion that economic coercion is an appropriate response to a call for such an assessment, when what we need is global cooperation.”
In 2018, diplomatic relations between both nations became strained when Australian wine faced import delays in China and beef exports were suspended for a time.
China has come under intense criticism over its handling of the virus and faces accusations of failing to take action sooner to contain its spread and covering up the severity of the outbreak. The virus has infected over 3 million people worldwide and killed more than 205,000.
Beijing last week rejected calls from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to give international inspectors access to laboratories where pathogens similar to COVID-19 are studied.
And now it’s the good old US of A 🇺🇸 that is distributing masks, PPE’s, ventilators, surgical gowns, and testing capabilities all around the world as needed no strings attached even to countries like Iran that hates us, if only they will accept it.
That must be why we are greatly increasing the testing due to the private public partnership to get it done. The daily press briefing was quite clear that there will be plenty of the tests. That states and local governments have primary responsibility for their areas should be a no brained to an objective observer