Blaming the CCP

I have seen a great amount of negativity written about China. Much of this is deserved. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had misled the world on the spread vectors COVID-19 and in all likelihood has understated, possibly by a full order of magnitude (maybe more), its own death rates. Its action against medical whistleblowers in its own country is unforgivable and there is no doubt that had they acted with integrity here a great deal of our early warning preparation would have been enhanced.

Beijing’s influence at the WHO is an issue which will have to be looked at with once the dust settles on this horror. China has to take action in closing down those dreadful wet markets. This is not the first time that they have been the genesis point for a Zoonotic disease. Western reliance on supply chains from China will have to be looked at as will a re-evaluation of China’s Most Favored Nation Status within a global free trade economy.

However we must resist the temptation to throw out the baby out with the proverbial bath water. Dismissing all medical and epidemiological studies that come from China is wrongheaded and indeed anti-scientific. Like any study they must be evaluated on their scientific merit and despite the CCP influence in Chinese science I am still not convinced that all of this is bunk.

The CCP is many things but they can ill-afford to completely discredit their own scientific community internationally. The COVID crisis will pass but the burden of bad science is a stigma that will stay for awhile.

It is also imperative that the actions of the CCP should not be conflated with those of individuals of Chinese descent. This will have negative repercussions. Only a small cabal at the top has any real power in China to begin with and if anything it is the Chinese population that have been the biggest historical victim of the CCP (Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square and now the Wuhan Epidemic).

Also other countries with Han Chinese dominant populations have done rather well and been forthright in disseminating useful scientific knowledge (Taiwan and Singapore).

The problem is with the CCP. Let us not overreact and spread the blame further than it ought to be.