Arguments blaming China for the coronavirus outbreak and asking the country to compensate the rest of the world have popped up from time to time since the globe failed to contain the virus in March.
An article titled “China Owes Britain £351 billion for Coronavirus Pandemic and We Should Take Them to Court, Study Claims” was published in The Sun, in which it suggests the U.K. “pursue damages from Beijing,” citing a report by a U.K. think-tank, the Henry Jackson Society.
It accuses China of concealing details of the outbreak in its early stage, and thus, China owes the U.K. “trillions of pounds,” which would be “used to cover the full costs of the treasury’s economic bailout plan and hike in NHS spending.”
Not coincidentally, Berman Law Group, a U.S. law firm, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, two Indian groups, Australian MP George Christensen, a so-called archbishop of Yangon and a family member of an Italian prosecco maker have all clamored in public with a hijacker-like tone, doing their best to sling mud at China, which actually created a two-month window for the rest of the world.
It is rare in modern human history that anyone would try to file a lawsuit over a pandemic, or call for a nation’s compensation. Such compensation only occurs after a war and the vanquished country is usually forced into financial obligation.
The reason why asking for compensation on an epidemic is impossible and ridiculous, is that diseases can only be regarded as natural disasters rather than vicious wars. No one benefits from it, but everyone has to suffer and accept the loses. When a new virus appears and secretly replicates its DNA and evolves on human hosts, people cannot immediately detect it and raise the alarm. We simply cannot blame people’s ignorance when they know nothing about it.
As for this time, the city of Wuhan did lose the narrow window of opportunity at the beginning. The city was sealed off about 23 days after doctors, including Li Wenliang, blew the whistle. But it does not mean that nothing was done in those 23 days. In fact, China started to report the case to World Health Organization (WHO) and the international community from Jan. 3 and shared the virus genome sequence to WHO on Jan. 11.
In contrary to those accusations, China actively made corrections, and spared no effort to stem the spread of the virus, which has won recognition worldwide.
Unfortunately, the international community did not treat the message from China seriously.
Many countries have hesitated to roll out strict rules until only recently.
The virus now has a free pass to enter wherever it likes and gives bitter lessons to those who dare to underestimate it.
It has become complicated to define who is the spreader and who is the victim. Every country has imported and exported the virus and even its variations. Then who should compensate whom for repeated exportation?
By continuously offering assistance to over 80 countries and international organizations, and by sending medical teams to badly-hit areas, China has taken its responsibility to the international community without hesitation.
It may have touched a raw nerve of some hostile people and was politicized by them, but it does not change the fact that China is the victim of the disaster.
The sick allegation asking China to give reparations to others reminds many Chinese the Boxer Indemnity 60 years ago when the Eight-Power bullies invaded the country and forced the nation to write a check. History will not repeat again. Those who plot to rip off the Chinese will not succeed.
(The author is head of Shenzhen Daily’s Qianhai office.)