The
Chinese authorities silenced
the report from a doctor working in the Wuhan Central Hospital of the
breakout of a new and unknown virus. They allowed a mass
event to take place in Wuhan with the participation of tens of thousands of
people. At the event the authorities distributed 200,000 free
passes for people to celebrate the China Lunar New Year thereby furthering
the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile,
the hospital doctor died of the virus.
In
mid-December, Chinese public health officials told the World Health
Organization of a pneumonia-type illness with no
clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. This was a lie.
Millions
of Chinese were allowed to fly around the world for work, study, or tourism
without any restrictions from a knowing Chinese Central Government, thereby spreading
the deadly virus globally.
By
January, the Central Government of the Communist Party of China knew precisely what
they had unleashed on their people and the world and their disinformation
campaign began in earnest. First they said there was little to worry about,
then when President Trump issued a travel ban on all flights from China into
the United States to try and slow the outbreak of a pandemic in America, the
Chinese Government threatened to stop the supply of pharmaceutical drugs from China,
then accused
US soldiers of spreading the virus in Wuhan.
In
January and early February, while claiming they had control over the virus in
China, the Chinese Government, through government-owned proxies and covert
companies including the China-owed Greenland
Group, were buying up huge stocks of masks, ventilators, protective
clothing from around the world including from Australia, Egypt and African
countries, and then selling them on in late February and March to countries
desperately short of vital items and equipment to fight the pandemic. In this way
the Chinese
Government were profiting from a virus that originated in their country
that they had denied. But hoped to be seen as the savior of the world.
Despite
the political incorrectness of letting China off the hook for their insidious
virus, there is no excuse to forgive them for the devastating health and
economic damage they have caused by their malevolent behavior.
Voices
have been heard calling for huge reparations from a Chinese Communist
Government that acts as if it is above the law and all the norms of acceptable
international behavior.
Many
US lawmakers are saying “We should hold China accountable,” Including
Marsha Blackburn, Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio. Senator
Josh Hawley said that “The cost of Beijing’s criminal conduct should be
assessed and they should pay damages to the USA and the world.”
Business
Today reported on a $20 trillion lawsuit has been filed against Chinese
authorities over the virus outbreak.
Fox
News ran an article, ‘How
China can be held legally accountable for coronavirus pandemic.’
In
this article Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the executive director of Shurat HaDin,
the Israel Law Center, was quoted as saying, “An argument could be made that just like support for
terrorism, which is legally actionable, a government that engages in such
reckless disregard and negligence and covers up an epidemic which has the
potential to spread worldwide could be held legally liable.”
She
went on to say, “Cover-ups and deliberate acts to conceal a
deadly medical crisis are not among the protected acts of a sovereign state or
of responsible leaders.”
Confirming Darshan-Leitner’s
contention, Juliya
Arbisman, an international disputes expert and partner at the New York-based
Diamond McCarthy law firm, indicated that there are broad possibilities under
international law, especially trade law, for State-to-State and individual
investor claims against countries.
Future claims
should include U.S. National Security advisor Robert O'Brien’s reference to the
doctors who were censored, pointing to the Beijing concealment in the early
phase which cost the world community two months and aggravated the
international fallout, leading to what House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep.
Michael McCaul, has termed "one of the worst cover-ups in human
history."
Ivana
Stradner, international law and national security expert at the American
Enterprise Institute said in the Fox New report, "China's delay in
reporting the outbreak violated international law."
David Matas
is a Canada-based international human rights lawyer who was appointed as a
member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Conference on the
Establishment of an International Criminal Court. He points out that if the virus
derived from the Chinese Bio Laboratory in Wuhan by any form and its spread was
denied by China, that this non-reporting is a form of violation of the Biological
Weapons Convention and that the United States could lodge a complaint to the
United Nations Security Council claiming that China had acted in breach of its
obligations according to the provisions of the Convention.
But
governments and major international companies are more interested in being
compensated for the damages caused to them, their citizens and workers.
The
devastating economic fallout from the China virus may take years to recover leaving
a trail of personal tragedies in its wake.
China must be
held responsible and not be allowed to profit from their malevolent actions.
Barry Shaw, International Public Diplomacy Director, Israel
Institute for Strategic Studies.
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