Popular left wing journal Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) has carried an article that comes across as a propaganda piece of the Chinese Communist Party.
The article titled “Covid-19 and US-China Tussle” written by Atul Bhardwaj, talks about rising Sinophobia in the US due to COVID19 starting with how the Americans are set to repeat history due to pandemic by imposing strict actions towards China and the Chinese bearing reference to what happened in America in the 1870s and 1880s. The Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 suspended immigration of Chinese people for 10 years and declared Chinese immigrants as ineligible for naturalization in US.
The article indirectly conveys that attempts to brand the virus as Chinese Virus or Wuhan Virus fell flat and that it failed to erode President Xi Jinping’s leadership and the legitimacy of the Communist Party of China.
It quoted how the Foreign Policy magazine criticized and blamed the Chinese government and bureaucracy and for their abdication of responsibility. As a counter to that, the article said
Faced with criticism, the Chinese government activated its propaganda machinery to portray its image of a well-organised state capable of taking full control of the situation. The Chinese used all power and resources to impose an effective lockdown and quarantine of the entire city of Wuhan. In late February, Bruce Aylward, of the World Health Organization (WHO), praising the Chinese efforts said, “the most ambitious, and I would say, agile and aggressive disease-containment effort in history” (Peckham 2020)
It further added that not only did the Chinese government rise above the chagrin against it but also “earned praise for its efficient containment” and also for its “medical diplomacy project” by sending masks and ventilators all over the world.
The article vehemently attacks Americans and their way of life of promoting individualism and privatization saying that the American way “looks pale in front of the Chinese system based on collective action under the aegis of the state”. It targeted the Trump administration for failing to contain the pandemic and also for scapegoating WHO and China to disregard its own failures.
Well, if the Chinese system is so efficient and how and why did the leak the virus out of China in the first place?
The article says that the US with its soft power has been able to win the propaganda war against China.
It doesn’t stop there. The article goes on to whitewash the suppression of voices by the Communist government that had raised alarms. This is what they had written about the two doctors who had alerted about the virus in November 2019. The article says that Dr. Li Jifeng who had shared her experience on social media about her experience with bubonic plague patients was forced to withdraw the message “to control the spread of fear psychosis among its people”.
Speaking about the Dr. Li Wenliang the article said “Interestingly, the case of Li Jifeng was similar to that of the 33-years-old doctor Li Wenliang who was the first to raise alarm about a new kind of viral infection in Wuhan in mid-December 2019. Much like Jifeng, Wenliang was also compelled by the Chinese authorities to remove his social message. The doctor continued to work among COVID-19 patients at the Wuhan hospital and eventually died fighting the disease.”
The article carries a section about how the smear campaign against China has taken over India as well. Quoting the incident where Bollywood Actor Amitabh Bacchan had tweeted a picture of WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus blindfolded with a Chinese flag, it said that the actor ‘exposed his mind’ to his followers. It also said that Congress leader Manish Tewari “churlishly supported” conspiracy theories when he spoke of COVID19 outbreak as an act of bio-terrorism.
The article says that these actions by public figures add to already prevailing angst against the Chinese adding that the “Indians would completely discard Chinese technology, goods and investments” given the level of anti-Chinese feelings.
“But the harsh reality of India’s poor manufacturing capacities does not offer that luxury. Such misplaced nationalism is certainly affecting our relations with China”, author Atul Bhardwaj says.
The author quoting the Global Times (the English version of China’s state newspaper Xinhua news) says that anti-China nationalist sentiment will do no good to India in fighting the pandemic given its fragile health infrastructure.
It concludes by saying that it would be “pragmatic” for India to not antagonize China as it is “one of the few countries that may be in a position to provide relief and support”.
Going through the Twitter timeline of Atul Bhardwaj, it becomes evident that he is a card-carrying communist and a Chinese stooge serving as its bootlicker by trying to create a favourable image for China working outside the country.
They were enemies of the people. preventing proper and reforms in the country and allowing big money to penetrate into the polity. https://t.co/KWq6RY5qxh
— Atul Bhardwaj (@AtulBeret) June 21, 2020
In one of his tweet he says that “it was natural for the Chinese communist regime to “consolidate its position on Tibet” and compared it with India’s amalgamation of its princely states and provinces.
What the Chinese bootlicker doesn’t realize is that in India’s case the rulers of the princely state “agreed” to be part of the Westphalian definition of Indian Union unlike the Communists of China whose lust for territory resulted in the genocide of Tibetan Buddhists.
This CPC bootlicker even derides the great freedom fighter Ram Manohar Lohia who during his time had warned of China being a threat.
There's hardly anything unique in Lohia talk abt the Chinese threat in Jan 1949. Every anti-communist was speaking the same language in 49. What needs more examination is how Lohia's utterances pushed our army into a frivolous war in 1962. @_YogendraYadav https://t.co/yk4caf3dMI
— Atul Bhardwaj (@AtulBeret) June 21, 2020
Now while one is aware of EPW’s left-leaning positions, it is appalling to see the magazine carrying an article that gives a free pass to China and sucking up to the Chinese government for its role in killing the global population and the economy.