China’s coronavirus soft-power push will fail if it cannot defend freedoms – at home and abroad

The backlash against the popular Wuhan Diary shows that the Chinese government struggles to allow people the freedom to express basic human emotions
On a global scale, how China deals with Africa’s debt could determine how it is viewed

Shirley Ze Yu

Published: 3:00am, 7 May 2020

Why you can trust SCMP

Most of Europe had fallen. Britain was barely holding its own. A great number of Americans remained committed to isolationism. This was the situation in late 1941, before Franklin D. Roosevelt took the United States to war in defence of freedom. In 2020, it is déjà vu.

At this hour of crisis, there is no doubt what humanity is fighting against – a virus, a lower species that has no capacity for reasoning, and therefore knows no fear and bears no shame.

But what is humanity fighting for today? Yes, we are fighting to outlast a lower species. The destruction it has caused is only dwarfed by a pandemic that killed 50 million people a century ago.

Rest assured that humanity will survive this time. But it will be a meaningless victory if human ideals, beyond species survival, are not defended.

During the draconian lockdown of the Chinese city of Wuhan, Fang Fang, a writer and poet previously unknown to most Chinese, became one of the most visible Chinese writers in the world.

Fang Fang published an online account of daily life under lockdown in Wuhan for 60 straight days, capturing people’s desperation, fear and joy, their unanswerable questions and the government’s unquestionable answers.

She recorded the disowned cellphones piled outside the crematorium that may have once belonged to the dead. She spoke of the public fury when the city’s Communist Party chief proposed a “gratitude education” campaign to allow people to thank government leaders. She reminded people of the shame of forgetting the experience of lockdown.

Chinese novelist Fang Fang at a literature festival in Cheltenham, England, on October 5, 2012. Photo: Getty Images

Wuhan Diary has registered over a billion views by some social media estimates. The release of each diary entry around midnight was an eagerly awaited moment for many Chinese during the lockdown.

Since the news broke that Wuhan Diary would be translated into English and published by HarperCollins, Fang Fang has received death threats. Chinese state media and social media users have shown a cultural revolutionary zest in pillorying her.

She has been accused of treason-like behaviour, of betraying China by revealing the less-than-exemplary battle against Covid-19, deviating from the official narrative. Her critics say she is profiting from the sacrifices of the Chinese people and has passed the West a “knife” with which to stab China.

Fang Fang’s writing is mild. While she has been mildly critical of the local government, she would not dare to challenge the party state. Apparently, even a mild dose of the truth is too painful for China to bear.

The government claims the country has triumphed in its war against Covid-19 and should serve as a model for the developed world. If citizens’ freedom to express basic human emotions, such as pain and sorrow, can no longer be tolerated, China has lost what lies at the heart of its fight.

Humanity is fighting for survival, but without freedom from fear, survival is as tragic as death.

Meanwhile, on another continent – Africa – fear is in the air. The world’s 20 richest nations reached an agreement to suspend debt payments from the world’s 76 poorest nations, many of them in Africa, until the end of 2020. With multilateralism having achieved so little during this crisis, this act was seen as a milestone.

Between 2007 and 2017, China lent African nations US$143 billion, around 20 per cent of Africa’s debt total. Beijing prefers a bespoke approach to debt relief on a bilateral basis with African countries, rather than a coordinated global solution.

If China is not willing to forgive Africa’s debt generously, multilateral credit facilities provided by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to Africa will simply be used to essentially pay back China’s loans. Sovereign stakeholders in the IMF and the World Bank, other than China, are unlikely to accept this.

Africa is mired in debt, with no means of financial recovery, unless China takes bold relief measures.

While China aspires to ascend to global leadership on the back of its handling of the pandemic, it is not so eager to make sacrifices for the sake of countries that need aid. China’s doctrines of mercantilism and win-win, at this moment of global crisis, come across as lacking empathy, strength, and conviction in a common global destiny.

The United States did not become a global leader by refusing to make large sacrifices for humanity in the 20th century. Leadership means more than winning. It means taking on pain with honour.

China, if it truly wants to be a victor and leader in this human fight, needs to forsake its self-interest. It must defend collective human freedom, at home and globally.

Dr Shirley Ze Yu is a political economist, an Asia fellow at the Ash Centre, Harvard Kennedy School, and a former Chinese national television (CCTV) news anchor

Help us understand what you are interested in so that we can improve SCMP and provide a better experience for you. We would like to invite you to take this five-minute survey on how you engage with SCMP and the news.

Post