– By Akrati Bhatia
COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented crisis in India and the world. The pandemic has shaken world powers economically, socially and politically. However, amidst the worst crisis, in an odd juxtaposition China seems to be strengthening its space and position in world affairs.
If one goes back to the initial emergence of the pandemic and analyse the crisis today, it can be commonly observed that China’s policy of ‘Deceit’ contributed greatly to the spread of this pandemic.
China’s initial attitude of suppressing Wuhan’s whistle blower ‘Li Wenliang’, putting the entire world at risk and subsequently becoming the first country to recover from the pandemic speaks volumes about its aggressive post covid-19 strategy.
As a country accountable for trembling the entire public health system in the world, China is taking utmost advantage of the crisis to pursue its long term foreign policy goals.
China’s illicit Claim over disputed islands in South-China Sea
In an attempt to capitalize on the world’s distraction towards fighting Corona Virus, China took another step to expand its claims over the South China Sea. Announcing two news administrative divisions under the Sansha City named as -Xisha and Nansha, China claimed the entirety of Paracel and Spratly Islands under its capacious nine-dash line claim.
China’s Defensive PR Policy spinning the Pandemic to its Advantage
Defusing the criticism and blame of spreading the virus, China skilfully supressed initial reporting and research about the outbreak, thereby stabilizing its own situation. Implementing increased internet control and sending ‘Internet Police’ to threaten people posting criticism on social media, Bejing launched an assertive external information campaign. This campaign had clear goals of flipping the blame on other countries and their government’s mismanagement towards handling the crisis.
Seizing the moment, China became a role model in global leadership by sending medical aid to European countries such as masks, respirators etc along with a planned PR strategy publicizing this assistance. This assistance was foremost publicised for Italy, a country that signed China’s Belt and road initiative last year.
Spread of Fake news and Social Media Campaigns
China very cleverly shifted focus of the world on the failures of US in handling the pandemic. Chinese officials took it to twitter and media outlets criticizing the United States for lacking transparency to its people and spreading the propaganda backed by state media outlets that the virus originated in United States. This conspiracy theory of China, inspired by Russia’s all-time favourite tactic proved helpful in shifting the world’s focus towards fake news.
Winning Friends through shaking economies
China has taken undue advantage of the covid-19 crisis by flexing its muscles on countries such as Africa, where the government is struggling to deal with the crisis and has aided China’s help for Debt relief to invest in health care, food and other amenities. By strengthening its manufacturing sector and offering cheap 5G technology from Huawei, China is creating a stable and strong economy when the other world economies are uncertain.
China seizing moment of opportunity
In another situation, China took undue advantage to assert unlawful territorial claims at the Galwan Valley in LAC. China has always been known as a country that takes advantage of vulnerability. In a similar pattern in 1962, China fought the war with India, when America was busy with the Cuban crisis. The war of 1962 ended on the very day when Cuban crisis came to an end with China fearing the possibility of US help to India. The Galwan valley attack seemed like a deliberate attempt to create tensions amidst the crisis.
These skirmishes clearly point towards China’s future strategy of strengthening its foot-hold with projects such as ‘One Belt One Road’ stretching from South China Sea to Indian Ocean.
It seems certainly true with China’s aggressive strategies, that as the world is distracted towards managing the pandemic, China is busy building its empire.