Looking at the doctrinal thinking in the Chinese military and in the light of their capabilities, the accusations of the deliberate attack theorists are quite plausible. Radio Free Asia and Wion TV sketched out a chilling scenario.
China created the coronavirus and developed it’s antidote/vaccine. My contention is that the genetically-engineered laboratory-made viruses were not really needed. There were several strains of naturally occurring bat-borne novel corona viruses available in China, which had been discovered in 2018.
To avoid/ negate strong responses from USA and other countries (USA’s nuclear doctrine and the doctrines of many other countries openly advocate use of nuclear weapons in response to biological or chemical attacks), China spread the novel coronavirus first in its own Wuhan city and the Hubei province.
My take is that the less lethal single mutation strain of bat coronavirus was released in Wuhan. It was swiftly brought under control. However, what was exported to USA and Italy and rest of Europe (via deliberately infected individuals) was the far more lethal – three mutation bat coronavirus, which latches on far more strongly to human cells.
What is noteworthy is that the national capital Beijing and the financial capital Shanghai largely remained unscathed. Thus, Beijing, with a population of 2.15 crore people had 569 infected and only 8 died. Shanghai, with a population of 2.5 crore had just 468 people infected and only 5 deaths. This ring-fencing looks suspect.
Allies of China, Russia and North Korea remained largely unscathed even as South Korea and Europe were hit. Taiwan and Japan were able to control it better due to extensive testing and mitigation strategies.
Since the Wuhan virus release was as per a ‘plan, the Chinese reaction was highly efficient. They were prepared with projects, prefabricated hospital buildings and materials to roll out a very impressive response that locked down Wuhan city and Hubei province rapidly and efficiently. It flattened the epidemic spread curve.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government cracked down on release of information about this virus. Dr Li Wen Liang, a Chinese ophthalmologist who worked as a physician at Wuhan Central Hospital, who warned the world about the possible outbreak of SARS-like illness ‘was killed’. The Chinese government actively suppressed knowledge of the virus and prohibited professionals from publishing findings that could have saved lives.
All this while, China quietly ‘ensured’ spread of this epidemic. Wuhan was directly connected to America by over 20 flights a day. It was equally well connected with Europe. In my view, the bat coronavirus strain exported was the far more deadly three-mutation type that has shown up in genome sequencing tests in Italy. China ‘deliberately’ kept it’s airports and borders open to facilitate spread of virus to pandemic proportions. In February, even as coronavirus spread, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi pressured neighbouring countries to keep borders open for prestige and reputation reasons.
With its ‘first mover’ advantage of having released the bat virus China rapidly controlled the epidemic to just about a lakh people and controlled the spread of this epidemic at home even as it raged in other countries.
As stock markets crashed globally, foreign companies in China resorted to panic selling of their stock holdings in high-tech companies to cut their losses and run. The Chinese government stepped in with alacrity to buy these shares at rock bottom prices and, in effect, nationalised all these high value companies. It began to aggressively buy out collapsing companies in Italy, Europe and Australia. China now planned to position it’s economy in strategic sectors to box out other industrialised nations still reeling from coronavirus impact. As per China State Administration of Science & Technology Industry for National Defense – “China must jump start it’s economy to pave way for international market expansion after this epidemic is over.”
China rapidly returned to normalcy. It jump started production of coronavirus-related equipment, masks, protective personal equipment (PPE), and ventilators. To quote Wion TV, “As China put the rest of the world in ICU, it began to manufacture ventilators.”
As Michael Sobelik said, “the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started this fire but they are angling to emerge from its ashes as the saviours.” China was the arsonist posing to be the fire-fighter. The aim simply is to turn coronavirus into a net positive for the CCP.
The Chinese Narrative
China, in its defence, claimed that it’s response bought time for the rest of the world to prepare and, in propaganda terms – China is a Global Health provider that is shipping masks and test kits to other nations. It sent health teams to Italy and Iran and supplied them face masks.
The sum of this thesis is that the Chinese deliberately created a biological Pearl Harbour in Wuhan as per a methodical plan. Then they let the epidemic radiate outwards to the world even as they put up an impressive performance (premeditated) to control it and exploit it for great economic advantage and profit. It is a spine chilling scenario. China will have to satisfy the world on this account.
A variant of this scenario is that though the outbreak was natural, China deliberately delayed it’s news and impact. Resultant lack of situational awareness led to this becoming a global pandemic.
Biological War Scenario?
These observations can lend themselves to another set of interpretations.
- Is what we have seen the first silent exchange of biological warfare shots as part of an unrelenting economic war between USA and China?
- Is what the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said – the Americans hit first with release of a natural bat coronavirus strain in Wuhan – true?
- The Chinese hit back with deadlier (three-mutation) strain of the virus to strike US and Europe in a major way.
- Winners in this war will be the nations that are able to rapidly clamp down the epidemic within their borders even as they ensure that it flares in adversary nations.
- Have we just witnessed the opening salvos of a Global Third World War? These are not nuclear-tipped missile exchanges but silent salvos of biological virus taking a fearful toll with vials released clandestinely and through deliberately infected humans.
The gap in this thesis is – what was the US motivation for striking first with a naturally occurring bat coronavirus? Since the USA is the stronger side, its motivation for employing asymmetric attacks is far lesser than China’s. Chinese military literature, on the other hand, has openly been advocating such a biological strike.
In the previous and this article the plausible scenarios for the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic have been sketched out. Reports have been cited with facts from open sources. We still need conclusive evidence to take a final judgment call. This judgment will have to factor in the biological warfare doctrines and capabilities of the nations concerned and the type of research they were engaged in. The reader can draw his own conclusions. We are on the cusp of radical changes in the nature of war and war fighting. Non-contact warfare may well be the dangerous new norm. The circumstantial evidence may be all there. What we need is the smoking gun. Possibly, it will come to light with time.
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China rushed health professionals from the armed forces from Hubei province and other areas to Wuhan to tackle the load of patients.
Forecasts suggest global GDP will fall by 0.9 per cent in 2020. Western countries at the heart of the current pandemic will be among the hardest hit – with GDP predicted to fall over the calendar year by 7 per cent in Italy, 6.5 per cent in Germany, 5.3 per cent in the UK and 4.9 per cent in the US.
Imported Cases and Local Transmission
The patient was infected after attending a meeting in Singapore and confirmed positive in Malysia
