More than 100 academics, parliamentarians and public figures from across Europe and Australia have signed an open letter criticising the role of China’s government in the global pandemic, saying the current crisis affecting the world
“has been caused by the regime so many of you have been tolerating and supporting for decades”.
China has faced continued hostility and skepticism over its virus response, in particular because of its suppression of information at the beginning of the outbreak, and the punishment of health workers who sought to warn colleagues of the new virus in December.
The already tense relationship between the US and China has worsened, as each government sought to blame the other for the outbreak – including unfounded allegations about deliberate production of the virus. The pandemic has also fuelled hostilities with Taiwan, which has been left out of the World Health Organisation’s response, and with African nations whose citizens have been subject to discrimination in Guangzhou.
“We should never forget that China’s Chernobyl moment was a self-inflicted wound,” reads the letter, published on Tuesday in the Hong Kong Free Press.
The global pandemic forces us all to confront an inconvenient truth: by politicising all aspects of life including people’s health, continued autocratic one-party rule in the People’s Republic of China has endangered everyone.
Rather than trusting the CCP’s intentions and accepting establishment academics’ uncritical approval of the party-state’s policies, we should pay greater attention to the voices of what can be termed ‘unofficial’ China.
These independent-minded academics, doctors, entrepreneurs, citizen journalists, public interest lawyers and young students no longer accept the CCP’s rule by fear. Neither should you.
Source: The Guardian