PRIOR TO THE COVID-19 debacle, China’s economy had been growing at stellar rates. The goal of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was to surpass the United States as the number one superpower in the world. To accomplish this, they had opened their economy in a more capitalist manner, while remaining socially communist. They knew this was necessary to effectively compete in the world. The CCP also fueled rapid growth by manipulating its currency and establishing a massive trade deficit which was harmful to the United States. For decades, U.S. presidents did not hold China accountable, looking the other way while American companies exported businesses and jobs to China. All of this benefited the CCP. In addition, the CCP executed a policy of “forced technology transfer,” which meant that all foreign companies doing business in China were forced to provide technology information to China in exchange for access to the Chinese market.1 Many companies in the United States were more than happy to do this due to the sales potential they gained as a tradeoff. There have been many instances in which the CCP obtained technology due to this policy and patented it as its own.
Enter President Donald Trump. No president has been tougher on China since Richard Nixon. Trump campaigned heavily on the issue of holding the CCP accountable, and he explicitly stated that he considered China a threat to the U.S. economy and its safety. Immediately after becoming president, he began instituting measures to level the playing field with China. In 2018, he levied a 25% tariff on steel imports from China to the U.S., and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports. In 2018, the trade deficit with China was $419.5 billion,2 which meant that the Chinese were exporting that much more to the U.S. than the amount of goods and services the U.S. was exporting to China. The deficit dropped to $345.6 billion by 2019, because of tariffs and other factors.
The CCP did not like this trend, as no president in recent decades had stood up to the regime in this way.
Another noteworthy issue is that the CCP has an abysmal human rights record, as is historically been the case with all communist regimes.3 Most recently, their treatment of the Uighurs, a Muslim minority population in China, has been the subject of significant criticism from the world community. The atrocities inflicted on this population include forced sterilizations and abortions; home raids looking for copies of the Quran; and inspections in which children are counted followed by the imposition of unaffordable fines for having too many. Uighurs who do not pay the fines are taken to “re-education camps,” which are in effect modern-day concentration camps. Although the CCP has relaxed its rules regarding having one child for the general Chinese population, the one child rule is still being enforced for the Uighurs, a thinly disguised program of eugenics and population control. The CCP has also destroyed hundreds of mosques in the region.4 The CCP’s goal is to destroy their identity and heritage, as they are a religious people, and religion is not compatible with communism.
Perhaps the most horrifying reports concerning the CCP’s treatment of the Uighurs were those alleging that the CCP was using them for organ harvesting, an allegation that has been made for decades.5 There have even been claims that healthy Uighurs were used for this purpose. Hamid Sabi, a lawyer for the China Tribunal has stated that he has proof that this was going on.6
These reports, combined with the fact that there were an estimated one million Uighurs and other Muslims in detention centers, made it increasingly more difficult for the world to ignore the situation. In the U.S., legislation was passed condemning the CCP and the surveillance and detention of this minority population.7 Other countries followed suit.
Of course, the CCP denied this and stated that the detention centers were actually “labor and education camps,” but they refused to allow any inspectors to see the facilities. The CCP was getting a lot of heat from around the world, and rightfully so.
Yet another issue concerning the CCP was its policies concerning Hong Kong, a long-time British colony that was returned to Chinese governance in 1997. The transfer was made under the premise that China would adhere to a “one country, two government systems” approach to Hong Kong. In other words, while technically a part of China, Hong Kong would remain a free area. This was the case for a long time, however the CCP, in conjunction with some local politicians, started working to gradually convert the island to communist status.
Citizens who were accustomed to freedom, and very aware and frightened of what life was like under the regime on the mainland, rebelled. Massive protests broke out, most significantly in 2019.8 This was unacceptable to the CCP and they cracked down, sent in security forces and police, and used violence to stop the protestors.
In late November of 2019, President Trump signed into law the “Hong Kong Bill”, which essentially recognized the city as autonomous from China and the CCP and stated that trade relations with Hong Kong would continue only as long as the island remained independent. The CCP vowed they would retaliate with “strong countermeasures.”9
The CCP needed a distraction from the allegations of human rights violations and the increasing tensions in Hong Kong, and perhaps the answer was found with COVID-19. It was a marvelous way to sow chaos not only against its enemy, the U.S., but in the rest of the world as well. While the United States economy crashed, the Chinese economy surged ahead. President Xi just might have been thinking “mission accomplished.”
ENDNOTES
1. Lee Branstetter What is the Problem of Forced Technology Transfer in China? ECONOFACT August 3 2018 https://econofact.org/what-is-the-problem-of-forced-technology-transfer-in-china accessed 9.1.2020
2. Kimberly Amadeo. US Trade Deficit With China and Why It’s So High. The Real Reason Jobs Are Going to China. World Economy Asia February 26 2020 https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-china-trade-deficit-causes-effects-and-solutions-3306277 accessed 9.1.2020
3. China Events of 2018 https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/china-and-tibet# accessed 9.1.2020
4. Associated Press. China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization. June 29 2020 https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c accessed 9.1.2020
5. Anastasia Lin. The ugly truth about China’s organ harvesting. New York Post June 23 2019 https://nypost.com/2019/06/23/the-ugly-truth-about-chinas-organ-harvesting/ accessed 9.1.2020
6. Will Martin. China is harvesting thousands of human organs from its Uighur Muslin minority, UN human- rights body hears. Business Insider Sept 25 2019 https://www.businessinsider.com/china-harvesting-organs-of-uighur-muslims-china-tribunal-tells-un-2019-9?op=1 accessed 9.1.2020
7. Associated Press Posted by Shivani Kumar. US Congress approves China sanctions over ethnic crackdown. Hindustan Times May 28 2010 https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-congress-approves-china-sanctions-over-ethnic-crackdown/story-bEpSpR2WsIaNfLIxaCIXHK.html accessed 9.1.2020
8. Verna Yu. Hong Kong: mammoth rally marks six months of pro-democracy protests. The Guardian December 8 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/08/hong-kong-democracy-protests-continue-into-seventh-month accessed 9.1.2020
9. Fred Imbert China threatens to take ‘strong counter-measures’ against USS after Hong Kong bill signings. CNBC November 29 2019 https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/29/china-threatens-strong-counter-measures-after-hong-kong-bill-signings.html accessed 9.1.2020