A couple of weeks ago I asked if the backlash against China was beginning. Oh, it is.
Africa was supposed to be China’s new stomping grounds. Instead, the novel coronavirus has spawned a growing backlash that threatens to unwind the ties Beijing has carefully cultivated over decades.
The trigger for the burgeoning diplomatic crisis: Anger over the treatment of African citizens living in China and frustration at Beijing’s position on granting debt relief to fight against the outbreak.
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But that decadeslong quest for influence in Africa was gravely challenged last week when a group of disgruntled African ambassadors in Beijing wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi to complain that citizens from Togo, Nigeria and Benin living in Guangzhou, southern China, were evicted from their homes and made to undergo obligatory testing for Covid-19.
The damage from this racial targeting will be lasting.
More:
The United Nations has backtracked on a pact with the Chinese telecommunications giant Tencent Holdings to provide videoconferencing and text services for the international organization’s 75th anniversary, following backlash from U.S. officials and lawmakers as well as human rights groups. Critics claim the arrangement rewards a company that has enabled Beijing’s digital surveillance efforts and stifled free speech on the internet in China.
Tencent, if you recall, is the money behind the “Top Gun” sequel and the reason why Japan and Taiwan’s flag patches were removed from Maverick’s jacket.
There is a growing backlash against communist China’s state media for it’s frou-frou coverage of the pandemic; there exists a backlash even from its own youth:
The outbreak has prompted a generational awakening that could match the defining effects of World War II or the 2008 financial crisis and that could disrupt the social stability on which the Communist Party depends.
Add this to Britain, Australia, Japan, and the U.S.’s explosive responses. Japan is devoting nearly all of their multi-billion dollar stimulus to incentives for Japanese companies relocating their manufacturing back to Japan. The U.S. is preparing to do the same, beginning with the admin’s “buy American” principle for government purchases. The exodus has begun.
As other countries roll over the peak and rebuild their economies, the smoke will clear and a decision must be made.
China lied and people died. This is what communism looks like.
