Why we must stand up to the CCP and WHO | Laura Hall
Outrage culture exploded back in March when the World Health Organisation responded to a statement made by President Trump, in which he referred to the Coronavirus as the ‘Chinese virus’ on Twitter. The WHO stated that we should all ‘be careful’ about the language we use surrounding the virus, suggesting that linking it to a specific country would lead to ‘dangerous stigma’ - implying that simply acknowledging the origin of the virus is racist and even going so far as to say that this is ‘more dangerous than the virus itself’, a narrative that has since been endorsed by online ‘woke’ culture and even exploited by China’s own communist propaganda. This is almost certainly the worst move in the crisis so far.
The only thing that is dangerous to the people of China is spreading this narrative; their government is their enemy and change will likely only come from retribution. In amongst the deleterious lies they told the world during the outbreak of COVID-19, there were multiple whistleblowers who are now missing and journalists believe the government to be responsible. Although China’s 1982 constitution guarantees freedom of speech, the government often uses the clauses of ‘subversion of state power’ and ‘protection of state secrets’ to put those who criticize them in prison or psychiatric facilities.
The punishment for such crimes doesn’t stop there; an independent tribunal sitting in 2019 concluded that China is killing their prisoners in order to harvest their organs, particularly those involved in groups whose beliefs don’t align with the government. Attacking or berating Chinese individuals in the street is not the way to go, but the entire world has every right to be angry with the Chinese government and aspects of China’s culture over the handling and roots of COVID-19.
Originally when news of the virus broke people were horrified to learn of its origin, and we still should be; it is believed to have spread to humans from bats in the open-air, public food markets or ‘wet markets’ of Wuhan, China. Markets in which mammals such as cats, dogs, pigs and cows as well as various species of reptile, amphibian, bird, fish and insect are butchered on site for customers, with practices including skinning and boiling live animals. They are highly unsanitary and tragically cruel; witnesses describe ‘screams of terror and despair’ and ‘rivers of blood’ flowing through the streets in which they are held. China’s SARS outbreak of 2002 was traced back to wet markets, resulting in a temporary national ban at the time.
This was subsequently lifted within months of the virus being contained, allowing history to repeat itself less than 20 years later on a global scale. Nature’s latest retaliation against this barbarism has seemingly been ignored; since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has made the eating of wild animals illegal and claims to have banned wet markets once again. However, photographs taken as recently as this week show caged cats and dogs ready to be slaughtered at markets in China yet again and wild animals such as bats still for sale.
Yet, the WHO has not made any attempt to put an end to wet markets, despite their evidential threat to global health. Their efforts to guilt trip the world into silence make them complicit in the continuation of this practice, which is not just detrimental to human survivability but animal cruelty on an unrivaled scale.
Even without wet markets, livestock raised for food in China are kept in such grotesque conditions, the catching and spreading of disease is inevitable. Witnesses claim that multiple species are kept together in dirty battery-farm conditions, ‘crushed into unconsciousness’ in gross neglect. China is the world’s biggest farming nation, leaving millions of animals subjected to this cruelty every year. This is not to overlook the mistreatment of livestock that happens in the West - but China’s mistreatment of animals is objectively, infinitely worse. There are currently NO nationwide laws that explicitly prohibit the mistreatment of animals in China.
Other examples of animal abuse in China:
The bile farming trade sees black bears kept in tiny ‘crush cages’ as they are continuously mutilated for their stomach bile for the entirety of their lives.
China’s fur trade, the largest in the world, sees animals beaten to death or skinned alive for their fur.
The traditional medicine trade (which the WHO also supports, even though it holds no scientific merit) includes the poaching of endangered species, such as tigers, for consumption of obscure parts of their bodies.
The circus trade sees bears, lions, tigers and more, starved, beaten and frightened into learning and performing humiliating tricks for live audiences.
Complustory animal testing for imported cosmetics leaves animals blinded and scarred.
Millions of water creatures such as fish, frogs and turtles are caught and sealed into tiny plastic bubbles and sold as keyrings by street vendors in city centres.
Since the outbreak, China has been promoting bear bile as a treatment for COVID-19 and multiple reports have emerged of officials rounding up and shooting animals over fears they may be carrying the virus. China’s commonplace abuse of animals is arguably one of the biggest animal rights issues of our time. This is something that should cause outrage. International outrage.
We in the West often proclaim ourselves to be animal lovers; if that is true we simply must fight back against this blatant bid to let China avoid the blame. We must hold them accountable, we must demand change. Brushing the origin of COVID-19 under the rug will not only allow it to happen again in another 20 years’ time, it will allow millions of animals to be left in these horrific conditions.
