Most Chinese people have been haunted by the painful legacy of history when China was invaded by Western powers and forced to sign a series of humiliating unequal treaties, which reduced China to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society until the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Defeated in the Jiawu Sino-Japan War in 1894, the Qing Dynasty was made to sign with Japan the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, which, among other clauses, included ceding Taiwan and Liaodong Peninsula to Japan and compensated Japan 200 million taels of silver.
The treaty whetted Japan’s appetite to further invade China and encouraged other Western countries to take advantage of the dying dynasty.
Then came the Treaty of 1901, or Xinchou Treaty, with 11 nations led by Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. forcing the Qing ruler to accept a host of unjust clauses including monetary compensation in colossal sums. And the two treaties were only a few of the many unequal treaties inflicted upon China.
Nothing is more harrowing than witnessing one’s own motherland’s sufferings of the loss of sovereignty and territories and submitting to incessant insults from foreign bullies.
Generations born after the founding of PRC including mine do feel the pain of that dark history, but the pang pales in comparison to that of those who personally witnessed or experienced the atrocity of the foreign bandits.
Yet to our astonishment, 120 years after the Peace Treaty of 1901, some impudent Western politicians and their jackals should hope to renew their imperial nostalgia: making China to compensate for what they claimed to be the loss of life and wealth caused by China over the COVID-19 pandemic.
Though the accusation is too absurd and the claim too preposterous for a serious rebuttal, ignorance of and taciturnity at the increasingly boisterous clamors in the U.S. and other places will embolden the scoundrels. A show of an iron fist is the only legible language to a rogue.
Take a look at the nasty plots of the farce. The one acting as a pawn is Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who on April 21 filed a lawsuit against the Chinese Government, the Community Party of China and others, alleging that the hiding of information and other actions at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak led to loss of life and significant economic damage in Missouri. Similar hysterical uproar can be heard in some other countries.
Though many international law experts have already dismissed such lawsuits against other countries as meaningless because there is zero legal basis to support them, why then, would someone squander time and energy to play the game?
First and foremost, the lousy officials in the U.S. and European countries have to shift public discontent and anger against them over their failure to contain the spread of the pandemic, which has resulted in heavy loss of life and wealth in their countries. It’s beyond doubt that they did nothing in the first one month or so to get ready for an imminent disease in spite of China’s two months’ anti-virus battle and WHO’s repeated warnings.
As for the origin of the novel coronavirus, an increasing amount of evidence indicates the possibility of multiple original locations in the world. More signs are pointing to infection cases that occurred in America and other places earlier than in Wuhan.
The verdict of any lawsuit depends on cogent scientific evidence, not on lunatic charges.
In addition, any charges against a sovereign state is not only banned by international laws, but by U.S. law as well.
Of course, respect for law is never a solid reason for Western powers to observe laws. They used laws as a supplementary tool to cannons and gunboats as they did in 1901 to China and in 2003 to Iraq.
But the days are gone forever when China was humiliated at gunpoint. China’s military might makes any whim of blackmailing China with coercion a mere illusion. And Washington must be reminded that a U.N. convention prohibits any racial discrimination, so the Chinese people reserve the right to prosecute American politicians who incited racial discrimination and seek fair compensation in accordance with international law.
Frame-up games go nowhere.
(The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)