Another trial for China?

Just when China seemed to heave a sigh of relief and prepare itself to embrace normalcy, the second wave of corona virus cases have put the entire country into a complete standstill. On Wednesday, the 8th of April, 63 new positive cases were confirmed and 61 of them were imported(either from foreign citizens or residents arriving from other countries). The citizens are shocked and the current situation has once again increased their confusion and uncertainty. It is also disheartening because the lockdown was lifted from the epicenter, Wuhan only on Wednesday after 76 long days of confinement but the new cases bring with it a high chance of the possibility of a similar second lockdown. Not just this, a group of Chinese mountaineers had begun their expedition of the Everest, from the Tibetan side only a week ago but now the continuation of that mission is indeed a big question mark.

To deal with the matter at hand, the Chinese government has adopted a proactive approach. A high powered committee headed by the Chinese premier Le Keqiang which earlier led the efforts against the pandemic has reportedly been called again. Hospitals have been advised to take prompt action and a new trial protocol has been announced. According to this rule, the government is set to start retesting all its recovered patients.

In Wuhan, the government has issued a QR code to all its citizens and only those who have a green code i.e. to represent those who are symptom-free can leave their houses. In Beijing, transport has been severely limited and foreigners are facing similar restrictions due to the spike in imported cases. Hong Kong authorities have reported that as of Thursday the situation was stable due to the ramped-up control and complete vigilance and Hubei has placed the highest level emergency response. It seems like the CNN reports “ China is on a knife-edge between recovery and another wave of corona virus cases".

However, this isn't completely surprising because according to a US study conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the corona spread in China is twice faster than any other country because a person testing positive can likely spread the virus to an average 5.7 other people and hence the recovery process is also likely to be longer and far more tedious.

Things don't help with the blame game still going on as now China has started accusing the US of causing “ panic" and “ spreading fear". In response, the US government has demanded that China immediately share the necessary measures to flatten the curve. It has also filed a 20 trillion dollars lawsuit against the Chinese army and the Wuhan Institute of Technology. US claims that China has started a bio war and that the virus was developed at the Wuhan virology labs following which it was carefully deployed over 0.001% of the Chinese population to ensure a minimum loss. Not just this, The International Court of Jurists and the All India Bar Association have also filed a lawsuit with the UNHRC blaming China for “ grave offenses against humanity “.

Finally, the attempts of the Chinese government to provide support to the countries of Europe have also stirred up a controversy. The Dutch officials reported that the 6 lakh masks that they received were defective as the filters were ineffective. Spain and Turkey received a similar problem with the test kits that they received and China had to immediately defend itself by saying that the company that manufactured these kits( Shenzhen bio easy biotechnology) did not have an official license and that the government would compensate immediately. The Dutch officials further reported that the shipments were in the hold because quality remains a factor that can never be compromised with and has criticized the Chinese government for its incapability in providing the desired quality.

It does seem as if China has both an internal as well as an external war to deal with. As per the recent statistics( 10th April) China has recorded 81,907 cases with 3336 deaths and the count is still rising. On the other hand, this pandemic might redefine the relationship between China and several other countries. To reduce their dependency on China, countries are turning to their industrial sector seeking to immediately expand and increase its production. For instance in India itself, a 3000 crore plan is being formulated by the Central Government to revive the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient to reduce its dependency on drugs, masks, ventilators, and other needy medical equipment.

So being said, China indeed has a lot on its plate and is definitely facing another trial!