Pandemic is a fit case for China to pay up
One had argued that reparation be paid by China to the world in general, and India in particular, for the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic which has infected more than 18 crore people and claimed almost 40 lakh lives across the globe so far, including three crore infected and 3.9 lakh dead in India. However, friends told me that unlike Germany, which was defeated in World War I, China is not ‘vanquished’. Hence, China can’t be made to pay reparation.
Examining China’s role in inflicting unprecedented devastation, misery and mayhem on the world, one found that there’s an influential section of China lovers in India (who are more concerned about trade and business even at the expense of India’s interests, preferring indifference to Beijing’s ceaseless threat to New Delhi). They are consistently trying to portray the adversely affected nations as weak, cowardly and submissive.
Hence, it’s imperative that a case is made out for the 222 ‘vanquished’ nations which collectively face the Communist Party of China (CPC), which turns 100 on July 1.
Perusing post-First and Second World War papers, it must be recalled that whereas the two 20th-century mega wars were started and fought by three or four European states’ dramatis personae against bigger nations, resulting in the victor-vanquished scenario, the 21st-century pandemic is a manifestation of Chinese culpability against humanity, perpetrated by the ruling CPC against the rest of the world. Fatally affecting every country, the virus threatens the long-term health and physical existence of humans. Covid-19 has already killed millions and devastated global economies.
China has succeeded in winning over leaders of countries to ravage resources and capture ports and islands and rupture landlocked states in Asia, Europe and Africa. It’s the new multi-front, multi-dimensional war of the CPC, included in which are several forms of criminality through wars of all means.
The CPC has broadened and redefined the art and craft of conquest through “war, irregular war, just war (bellum justum), mixed war, perfect war, private war, regular war, revolutionary war, solemn war.” Nothing seems to be left out.
Yet, the covert CPC attempt is unable to hide anymore its questionable intentions from the comity of nations. Slowly, and steadily, realisation is dawning across continents to take on the CPC and make it accountable for its brazen lapses. The CPC can be taken before a specially constituted court by the affected nations, on the lines of the Nuremberg and Tokyo war crime tribunals.
Nevertheless, the problem arises from the fact that it will be beyond the United Nations (in its present form) to pin down the CPC since China has veto power to abort any international legal act against its own illegal act, perpetrated and perpetuated through a “devious, indirect approach”.
The real challenge, therefore, is to tackle the CPC’s malevolence and mala fide. When the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ’s) July 2016 verdict went against China and favoured the Philippines on the South China Sea dispute, China audaciously ridiculed the ICJ with its characteristic arrogance. Reportedly, the international court has no power to enforce its own legal verdict, thereby leaving the world to face ‘might is right’ and ‘survival of the fittest’. Thus, even if the CPC harms, harasses and hits all, the world can only wait, watch, and wail.
All, however, isn’t lost. The door is open to take the CPC to the ICJ. Try, constitute a special tribunal to impart justice for the “crimes against humanity” and “aggression” (of diplomatic threat, abuse, bullying, political blackmail), thereby impinging upon the economic activity, territorial integrity and political sovereignty of nation-states across the globe.
Since the UN Security Council has express powers to enforce the ICJ judgments, it’s time to confront the CPC rather than resorting to appeasement, born out of the fear of a CPC reprisal or retribution.
The ICJ aside, the International Law Commission (ILC) could also be taken on board. A body created in 1947 by the UN “for the purpose of encouraging progressive development and codification of international law”, the ILC consists of experts in international law who drafted important treaties like the Vienna Convention on Law of Treaties, which became a binding treaty law.
The supreme need of the hour is to combat the CPC through international bodies, showing gumption to abort the threat to human existence posed by a single nation’s ruling party. The big or small, tiny or mighty, must have consensus — as was done after World War II to nip in the bud the mindless aggression of those who once posed a threat to humanity.
Thus, those arguing that though “one could take on the vanquished power in the 20th century, yet there’s no scope to treat China like that in the 21st century” aren’t being realist. The issue is the existential threat to humans. Whether it’s the vanquished or the victor, it doesn’t matter. What’s relevant is whoever tries to pose a universal threat to humanity must be brought to justice.
And, today, the centenary-celebrating CPC is the sole culprit, under its dictatorial regime, which is more dangerous than the vanquished of all the eras taken together, posing an “en masse existential threat to humanity’.
Countries of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose except the precious lives of your able-bodied citizens. Remember, the Chinese State is the Communist Party of China and vice versa.
