In the Belt and Road framework, China is
supplying much of the world including virus-hit Europe with medicine and
healthcare item
When President Xi Jinping was on a
phone call in mid-March with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti, before the
arrival of a China Eastern flight from Shanghai to Milan full of medical help,
the key takeaway was the Chinese pledge to develop a Health Silk Road (Jiankang Sichou
Zhilu).
That was in fact already inbuilt
in the Belt and Road Initiative playbook since at least 2017, under the
framework of enhanced, pan-Eurasian health connectivity. The pandemic only
accelerated the timeline. The Health Silk Road will run in parallel to the
multiple overland Silk Road corridors and the Maritime Silk Road.
In a graphic demonstration of soft power, so far China has offered
Covid-19-related equipment and medical help to no fewer than 89 nations – and
counting.
That covers Africa (especially
South Africa, Namibia and Kenya, with Alibaba in fact announcing it will send help
to all African nations); Latin America (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Peru);
the arc from East Asia to Southwest Asia; and Europe.
Key recipients in Europe include
Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Serbia and Poland. But Italy,
most of all, is a very special case. Most are donations. Some are trade –
like millions of masks sold to France (and the US).
Less than a year ago Italy became
the first G-7 nation to sign a memorandum of understanding formally joining
Belt and Road – much to the displeasure of Washington and the Atlanticist
galaxy in Brussels and beyond.
Earlier this year in Sicily, I
discussed these intricacies in detail with Enrico Fardella, Professor of
History at Peking University and an expert on China-Mediterranean
relations.
Italy is supported on myriad
fronts – not only at the highest political level but also via the Chinese Red
Cross, Sino-Italian associations, tech/logistics Chinese companies and
donations from Alibaba, Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo. There are three Chinese medical
teams in Italy at the moment.
This all ties up with the larger
Belt and Road picture, featuring investments in Genoa and Trieste, two key
ports and future Belt and Road nodes.
A performance of a Puccini opera whose
story focuses on the illness and death of a lovely seamstress is canceled,
ironically due to coronavirus, at the Verdi theater in Trieste. China has made
investments in Trieste and Genoa, two key ports and future Belt and Road nodes,
and now it is providing medical aid to Italy as part of its newer, parallel
Health Silk Roads scheme. Photo: AFP / Jacopo Landi / NurPhoto
This Chinese soft power offensive is carefully calibrated to offset the
current paralysis of global supply chains. China is now working overtime to
supply many parts of the world with medicine and related healthcare items
– always with the Belt and Road framework in mind, as if doubling down on
Globalization 2.0.
That spells out the
interconnectivity of nations that badly need development and infrastructure
along with the need for good health systems and practices.
And that prepares the terrain
for, when Covid-19 is more or less tamed and the Chinese economy fully
recovered, the Belt and Road reboot: an inexorable historic trend based on a
new economic model that Beijing deems more equitable, and in the interests of
the Global South.
‘Chinese lie‘
A Health Silk Road is already in effect when we see China, Russia – and
Cuba with its first-class health system – sending teams of doctors and
virologists as well as planes with medical equipment to Italy, and China
sending drugs, test kits and supplies to illegally sanctioned Iran.
China immediately understood what was at stake as it saw Covid-19
ravage many hot points of world-famous Made in Italy. With its offer of
skilled, cheaper manufacturing, China had initially lured key Italian fashion
houses to outsource their production to China, and most of all to Wuhan.
The connectivity – which has been
there for decades – works both ways. Chinese investors started to arrive
in northern Italy in the early 1990s. They bought a string of factories; renovated
them; created their own, top Made in Italy brands; and brought in tens of
thousands of skilled Chinese seamstresses to work in these factories.
There are plenty of direct flights
from Wuhan to Lombardy – to serve at least 300,000 Chinese who have moved
permanently to Italy to work in Chinese-owned factories producing Made in
Italy.
So it’s no wonder Doctor
Giuseppe Remuzzi, director of the Mario Negri Pharmacology Institute in Milan,
became a superstar in China. In an interview that went viral, Remuzzi
talks about his explosive findings in conversations with general practitioners
in Lombardy.
Here’s Dr. Remuzzi, at 4:19: “Do
you know what happened? Certain family doctors, who have the best antennas in
the territory, at least the most able and attentive ones, have told me recently
that they were seeing grave cases of pneumonia, which we had never seen in
other years.
These
pneumonia cases had nothing to do with typical flu pneumonia, they were
interstitial pneumonias, they had to do CT, radiography [to diagnose it], and
this was seen in October, November, December. So this virus has been
circulating a long time.”
That was indeed in parallel with
or even before the first coronavirus cases in Wuhan in mid-November. It’s been
already scientifically established that the virus strains in Wuhan and in
Lombardy are different. Which came first, and where from, remains a matter of
incendiary debate.
Inevitably
the Health Silk Road would have to be dismissed by the Atlanticist gang as a
disinformation ploy exploiting the pandemic to “destabilize” and weaken Europe.
That’s the narrative promoted by EUvsDisinfo, an NGO whose
personnel love to blast Russia and China for a living.
So
for the Brussels bureaucracy, the Health Silk Road is not about saving lives;
it’s about “destabilizing” the EU and improving Xi Jinping’s domestic image
after China lied, lied and lied again about the extent and severity of
coronavirus. That happens to be the exact same narrative of the Trump
administration, US corporate media and US intelligence.
Does it matter? Not for those 89 nations that are receiving much-needed
help and equipment. The dogs of demonization bark while the Health Silk Road
caravan passes.
