By Dr. Sawraj Singh

While many have blamed China for the COVID-19 with racist theories that it originated from bats and other exotic animal consumption while China has responded that the Coronavirus was actually unleashed by US Army and it’s agents (most likely soldiers doing training exercises with China who released the alleged bio-weapon at the meat and seafood market in Wuhan).

Who do you believe?

Well it doesn’t really matter as China got hit first and the virus grew quickly in Wuhan, infecting more than 80,000 people, largely in Wuhan but it’s what China did after that shows their real might and efficiency, building a hospital for 1500 people in 10 days and cordoning off areas to stop the spread in its tracks. That is real leadership and textbook case of how to deal with the deadly crisis.

However, it’s a completely different picture in the West and the present corona virus pandemic has exposed decadence and deep rooted crisis of western capitalism as well as its vulnerability and inability to cope with any major crisis. 

China, on the other hand, has clearly emerged as a winner as far as the capability to deal with any major crisis is concerned. It can also be said that on the whole, eastern countries have shown much better ability to deal with any major crisis than western countries. These developments reinforce the concept that the two major trends of the present world are; Rise of the east and decline of the west.                     

The epicenter of this pandemic has now shifted from China to Europe. However, there is a big difference in the way China handled the crisis and the western countries are handling the crisis. Compared to China, Europe and America seem totally unprepared to deal with the crisis. There is a problem in enforcing discipline. There are inadequate facilities to do the testing. There is a tendency to monopolize the testing and there is a tendency to hoard the supplies and jack up the prices of the essential goods and the things which can be useful in preventing spread of the infection.                                         

The first thing which is lacking in Europe and America is the availability of lab testing for the virus infection. However, instead of allowing testing or to develop capability to test by the laboratories, monopoly and profit making seems to be the main concern. America is trying to give exclusive rights to a company to develop and provide lab testing. This is leading to a lot of people not being tested for the virus who should be tested.                                                                                                                                                                

The western capitalist countries' greed has become a major obstacle in their capability to cope with the crisis. Because of their falling fertility rates and because of their tendency to exploit cheap labor from third world countries, they have mixed their populations too fast and also have millions of illegal migrants for super exploitation. These factors will only enhance the impending collapse of the western capitalist system. Lenin was so right when he said that for making profit capitalists will sell you the rope with which you can hang them. We are watching now what greed of capitalism has done to their societies. This pandemic has shown us that the capitalist led pseudo globalization is going to collapse and will be replaced by a true globalization led by countries like China, Russia and India.

Another curse of capitalism particularly of American capitalism is a very large number of the homeless people. Coronavirus infection in these people will be extremely difficult to control just like the illegal aliens.                                                                                                                                                                           

Compared to the western capitalist countries the eastern countries have fared much better in dealing with the infection. Countries like China, Russia, South Korea and India have comparatively done much better than the western capitalist countries in coping with the infection. They have shown much better discipline and paid more attention to the collective interests of their societies unlike the western capitalist countries where each section of the society seems to pursue its own interests rather than be concerned about the collective interest of the society. This lack of any collective perspective has become so obvious in these countries.                                                                                                                                                        

The WHO has praised China for its handling of the corona virus infection pandemic. Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, has also praised China’s efforts to cope with the infection. Today is the first day that no new case of the infection was reported in Wuhan. We can compare China to Italy, a developed western capitalist country and see the difference in how these countries handled the infection. Italy, with a population of about 60 million has more people dying of coronavirus than China with a population of more than 1.3 billion. China not only was able to control the infection in China but has helped the other countries, including the western capitalist countries, to cope with the infection. It has sent experts, lab testing kits and medicines to these countries to help them cope with the infection.                                          

The western propaganda had left the impression that after Mao China had abandoned the socialist course and had joined the world capitalist club. However, the way China has handled the present crisis clearly showed the world that Chinese system is fundamentally different from western capitalist countries. As opposed to the western countries China wants to serve the overall interests of the society. Moreover China is a much more disciplined society compared to near anarchic conditions in the western capitalist countries.                                                                                                                                                

One good thing coming out of this crisis can be that chances of a Third World War could have been reduced. The two World Wars were fought to determine the leading imperialist country of the world at that time. The corona virus infection has clearly established superiority of the Chinese system over the western capitalist system. Therefore, we do not need a Third World War to establish this. The corona virus infection pandemic may cause a lot of harm. However, the destruction brought by the war can be much worse.            

Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at sawrajsingh@hotmail.com.