Chinese Arrogance !

China is threatening an economic boycott of Australia because our government wants a scientific investigation into how and where COVID-19 originated and what can be done to prevent other new diseases appearing in the future.   Our over populated world was threatened by Ebola originating in Africa and then SARS and now COVID-19 in China. In all three cases the point of origin seems to be "wet markets " where native animals are butchered for human consumption.

The Chinese Communist party is sensitive to criticism of its handling of this outbreak.  It tried to stop the news from reaching the west and has since contrived to  suggest it was an economic weapon designed in America and infiltrated into Wuhan in China.  China has engaged in a " disinformation " campaign to shift the blame.

The Chinese ambassador in Australia has threatened our exports to China worth $153 billion in 2018-19.  He specifically claimed Chinese parents may hesitate to send their children to Australian universities If such a boycott eventuates it will be government inspired and not a rejection by the Chinese masses, but it could decimate our exports of beef, wine and the growing vegetable market. It is the Chinese Communist party which controls the levers of power on what goes in and what comes out of China.

A similar threat has watered down criticism of China in France and other European capitals have become hesitant.  The problem is China is now the world's second biggest economy and it can pick and choose where it places orders.  Economic power is related to political power and the government of China insists that Communist dogma over rules all other issues.

So far we have been lucky.  Ebola was halted before it spread across the world.  COVID-19 threw the world economy into turmoil with many deaths, but there is every chance that another new disease may emerge weaponized to kill more than half the world population.  We urgently need to concentrate scientific research to develop vaccines ready to stop such pandemics cutting a swathe across the earth.

It would be a tragedy if Chinese sensitivities  put the brake on scientific research to find a vaccine for the Coronavirus and to look for ways to stop such new diseases from emerging.  Apart from the madness of a nuclear war, the biggest threat to the human race comes from the emergence of a super pandemic.  This Coronavirus is a warning of what is possible.

Perhaps the world needs to rethink this power equation.  Trade is a two way deal.  The Chinese economy would come to a grinding halt if the world refused to buy from China - or refused to sell unless its scientific safeguards were met.