New Delhi: A new investigative report by CNN claims Chinese President Xi Jinping delayed his warning to the world about Covid-19 by six days, further fuelling the raging debate over how well the country handled the crisis in the beginning.
We asked our readers, “Is it correct to just blame China for the global spread of Covid-19?”
This was their take:
‘Can blame China only after thorough investigation’
It’s everyone’s responsibility to contain the virus from spreading. If we act in a responsible manner we can tackle the situation. Pinning blame on China is valid only after thorough investigation committee is set up by the members of United Nations. The current allegations against China in the global political landscape is confined to tweets and social media posts. Except USA, no country has yet bitten the bullet to confront China. We are still not sure of the virus origins. Did it come from the Wuhan wet market? Or, was the virus made in a lab? With many critical questions and conspiracies lingering, an immediate call for investigation is required. With just Uncle Sam pulling the trigger, China cannot be punished — Sanath Prasad
‘China lied. People died’
China is solely responsible for this calamity the world is going through. ‘China lied, people died’, this is the best way to tell what is happening. Whatever lobbying China might use with WHO, media, ally nations, etc, people know that the virus was born in China, the spreading began there and the country decided to remain mum about it. Had China alarmed the world about it, many lives could’ve been saved. And there isn’t anything racist about calling it ‘Chinese virus’, because the virus has its origins in China. I really hope China is held responsible for it on an international platform like UN General Assembly — Nimit Arora
‘Present scale of pandemic a corollary of govts, institutions failing to contain spread’
It would be incorrect to solely blame China for the Covid-19 pandemic. Scientists almost unanimously ruled out the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 being bio-engineered and are yet to find out how it originated in China. The present scale of the pandemic is essentially a corollary of governments and its institutions failing miserably across the globe to contain the spread of the virus. Poor health infrastructure, inadequate funding and faulty governance structure of key institutions, plausible deniability and misinformation, incompetence among the political brass, and a lack of access to basic amenities among a significant portion of the population largely aggravated the virus outbreak — Arnab Sensarma
‘Crippling economy a reality check on how efficient govts are’
Does the blame game on China justify how miserably popular leaderships around the world have failed to cope up with a global pandemic? Does it justify how major superpower countries collapsed and failed at quick decision making?
The increasing death toll, the crippling economy is a reality check for the people on how efficient their respective governments are in handling a national emergency. India was quick in implementing an early lockdown, but it is evident with the current migrant crisis going on that there was no planning at all. Maybe it could have been predicted and prevented as well — Yeshassavi Pandita
‘Debate should be on to what extent we punish China’
It’s less about ‘whether to blame’ and more about ‘punish to what extent,’ is what I believe. The fact that the Chinese government hid (or falsified) the inception of the virus and its spread in early stages when it could have been easily contained makes them quite the culprit for inciting the global pandemic. I still am unsure of blaming their culture or “cuisine” for it. But being the victims, “what payback should we seek?” or at the least “to what (financial, social, or political) extent should they be scrutinized?” are the questions that world governments should be debating on — Sabir Kazi
‘Yes, China is at fault, but it’s not to blame for world’s failures’
Yes and No. Is China responsible for the outbreak of Covid-19 in several countries? Yes. Is China solely responsible for the global spread of Covid-19? No. China did make mistakes in the beginning by trying to conceal the information and being careless in handling the situation. However, the over enthusiastic attempt of America and some European countries demanding reparations from China is just a lousy attempt to divert attention from their own failures — Pritam Upadhya
‘If govts acted in time, coronavirus wouldn’t have spread like wildfire’
No, rather the governments which underestimated Covid-19 should be blamed. In a vicious attempt to find a scapegoat for his failures, US President Donald Trump has named and shamed China for the pandemic. In India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi warned against the deadly disease 40 days ahead of the nationwide lockdown, but our netas were seen engrossed in Delhi elections and ‘Namaste Trump’, and completely ignored Rahul’s warning. Had the governments across the world acted well before time, coronavirus wouldn’t have spread like wildfire. Hence, blaming China would equal shrugging off one’s responsibility — Siddhi Swaraj
‘Xi Jinping has blood on his hands’
I think it is correct to blame China for the global spread of Covid-19. But at the same time, almost every country has failed to mitigate the crisis either because of the casual approach or low testing and too much dependence on mathematical modelling which has completely failed.
Other countries might be incompetent in handling of the pandemic but what China did was criminal. They did not take any measures for more than one month since first case of Covid-19 was found in Wuhan. They let more than than 5 million people get out of the Wuhan before lockdown. They censored data coming out of Wuhan. Blood is on the hands of Communist Party of China (CPC) and Xi Jinping.
What we need is a Democratic China and death of CPC to prevent future pandemics — Bhautik Parekh
‘People not following guidelines should be blamed’
Today it’s China; the next one may break out in Brazil, Europe, even the US or anywhere else. We cannot blame a country if the virus originated in their country or jumped from any species to humans in that country, but we sure can criticise it for holding back information for a few weeks which might have made a difference in controlling the pandemic. These blame games complicate the rational analysis of the various strategies of fighting it back. The leaders, who instead of coming out with effective measures, use scapegoats who take the blame. People who are overconfident of their immunity and don’t follow the guidelines should certainly be blamed for the spread of Covid-19 — Atisshreya Chhotaray
‘China’s transparency would have helped nations stay alert’
China is the origin place of Covid-19 but is the 14th worst affected nation. China’s transparency and global cooperation in the initial stage would have helped nations stay alert and understand the seriousness. Now it looks as if China wanted to bring down the world along with it. Timeline of SARS and Covid-19 tells you the difference between the two WHO leaderships, and China’s handling of the crisis. China’s attempt to use Covid-19 to win an ideological battle is a mistake. At the same time, not closing flights from all nations, lack of quality testing at airports and gaps in the public health policy of other nations were big enough problems — Krish Vikram