In the midst of numerous issues being raised against China, either blamed of withholding the truth for too long while taking WHO into false confidence or expanding its military power by harming the bilateral relations with neighboring countries, China has never laid any controlling factor to avoid the outrage against it.
When the whole world is battling against the deadly coronavirus, an economically and technologically well equipped giant nation like China considers this crisis as an opportunity to reframe ideologies, beliefs and economical or militarily ties.
Experts say it has adopted an “engagement with containment” policy which ensures India to come forward for economic ties, as India majorly depends upon China for better and smooth trade benefits. On the contrary, its stance over the LAC issue, exaggerated and untenable claims remain clear and violent without bothering much about the former one.
Thus, former army personnel quote China as our untrusted neighbor. Nonetheless, most of the countries across the globe possess some human rights which are accountable to treat citizens equally, irrespective of any further bifurcation, and grant them free access to put thoughts if dissent arrives.
Recently, China’s move to impose National Security Law in order to demolish the autonomy of Hong Kong shows its cruelty in violating the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 promising 50 years of autonomy to the city. Critics believe this legislation could be used to quash dissent in the city, such as the ongoing pro-democracy protests there.
The US and the UK have strongly protested China’s recent moves. “It would upend China’s ‘one country, two systems’ paradigm, and it would be a clear violation of China’s international obligations,” British Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said on 2 June. Alongside, as China is set to impose its national security law in Hong Kong despite several protests and worldwide condemnation, students and labour unions have started an unofficial referendum among members on whether to stage a walkout. The referendum aims to secure a two-thirds majority to prove their actions, also considered to be the last chance to mobilize people.
1984, a dystopian novel, which talks about a totalitarian form of government, was authored by Gorge Orwell back in 1949. Referencing this particular book makes a story of heavily surveillanced and marginalized Turkic ethnic group, Uighur Muslims, of China’s largest province Xinjiang alive. This province depicts its geopolitical importance in terms of rich natural resources and widely shared border with more than five countries.
Treatment of the Uighur Muslims today by China, poses a serious threat to this large Muslim ethnic minority which were in millions in the 1950s. As alleged, these people are largely persecuted by forcibly criticizing their own Islamic beliefs, reciting Communist Party Propaganda songs for hours each day, also forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam.
The emergence of the Islamophobic ideology of China can be traced through this excerpt from an official Communist Party audio recording which was transmitted in 2017 to Uighurs via WeChat:
“Members of the public who have been chosen for re-education have been infected by an ideological illness. They have been infected with religious extremism and violent terrorist ideology, and therefore, they must seek treatment from a hospital as an inpatient… The religious extremist ideology is a type of poisonous medicine, which confuses the mind of the people… If we do not eradicate religious extremism at its roots, the violent terrorist incidents will grow and spread all over like an incurable malignant tumor.”
In mid May this year Aljazeera reported that “The US Senate has approved a bill calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to toughen it’s response to China’s crackdown on the Uighur Muslim minority, calls for ‘visa and property-blocking’ sanctions against Chinese officials responsible for the repression of Uighurs and other Muslim groups in Xinjiang.”
Dr Li Wenliang was the whistleblower who triggered a controversy in China and across the globe by sharing some messages to fellow medics about a “strange new virus”. He was later forced to sign a police document saying he had “seriously disrupted social order” and “breached the law”, before he returned to work at Wuhan Central Hospital where he died of COVID-19 on 7 February. It gave rise to the nationwide outcry with hashtag #wewantfreedomofspeech.
The above briefings demonstrate a certain kind of dynamics with which China tries to rule over its own citizens, violating their human rights, making it a crime to practice freedom of speech within the nation.
The Chinese dragon has been spewing fire so violently in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that it holds a capacity to burn off every obstacle that falls in between its oppressed and harsh behavior. They believe this will lead them on a path to conquer the world and become the world’s biggest and most powerful country by 2025–30.
The exaggerated claims in eastern Ladakh, leading to clashes over unresolved issues on the LAC, artificial islands in the South China Sea, construct a more suspicious model of unstoppable China.