Don’t Let China Become Another Iraq – Opting Out

All eyes are on China right now. More countries are questioning China’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, and openly speculate on “what must be done” about China. This includes calls for Western businesses to withdraw investment from China and boycotts, to more officially substantive actions such as sanctions and reparations.

Considering this seems to be more than rhetoric (the state of Missouri has launched a lawsuit against China), and that there may be drastic implications to what Western democracies are suggesting, it’s more than necessary to examine their justifications. After evaluating the arguments brought forward by these Western powers, there’s more than enough to lend rational skepticism to their narrative.

“China is covering up the contagion numbers!” and “China created the virus in a lab to destabilize the west!” are the new “Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that they are willing to use imminently.”

When you break the China coverup idea down, this is a strange argument, considering who it’s coming from. These people are skeptical that lockdown measures are the best means of combating this virus, or at least questioning its wisdom in the aim of “flattening the curve.”

They’re also arguing that the US didn’t have the necessary time to prepare because China was covering up the damage for so long.

So to lay out the argument: “We disagree with lockdown, but we’re also unhappy that we didn’t have the evidence to go under lockdown earlier.” That’s an odd one, for sure.

The Wuhan-lab-made virus story is still a conspiracy theory at this point. Genome-sequencing leads virus experts to believe that the virus could not have been man-made. Zoologist Peter Daszak, who has been working in the Wuhan lab for 15 years, says the theory of any kind of escape is “pure baloney”:

“There was no viral isolate in the lab. There was no cultured virus that’s anything related to SARS coronavirus 2. So it’s just not possible.”

These people could be lying, of course, but it would be the height of foolishness to make rash history-disrupting decisions based on mere accusations of dishonesty.

What will happen if this rhetoric heats up?

The double standard when it comes to China’s behaviour is astonishing. This isn’t whataboutism — the whole premise behind China-watching is that the US is the enlightened force for individual rights and freedom benevolently liberating disenfranchised peoples. When the US criticizes China for spying, whilst also enabling the NSA, and criticizes China for squashing dissenters, whilst running Edward Snowden and Julian Assange out of polite society, it represents the height of hypocrisy.

The non-interventionist plight is that when you’re arguing not to invade a particular country, you’re almost necessarily going to be accused of supporting that country’s regime. You needn’t say anything especially controversial about this country, but chances are you’ll get labeled a shill.

I hope that these people, at some point, realize the correlations. Those that sincerely questioned the wisdom in further bombing and sanctions on Syria were smeared as apologists for Assad.

Let’s remember Iraq, too. Think of how we enlightened we believe we are, in 2020, when we correctly recognize that the 2003 intervention and the following operations was a black hole of destruction justified by nothing. There were no weapons of mass destruction, let alone any that were practically in the launch stages directed at American cities.

Where will those people be in a decade’s time when it’s become as plain as snow that their favored intervention in China caused more harm than good? Will they apologize for passively following the standard party line yet again, or as usual claim they opposed it from the start?

None of these people, incidentally, would dare utter an opinion if it wasn’t roundly supported by all the fashionable view-purveyors. Yet they happen to be the most righteous fingerwaggers of them all.

We can predict, a priori, what the line will be towards any dissenters to the CIA-approved narrative: You don’t care about the poor oppressed Chinese people; you would love to see the US turned to ash and let communism take over the world. You know, the standard chimp-brained take the blue checkmarks endorse. It’s about time our culture stopped participating in this.