{"id":560390,"date":"2021-06-11T05:06:51","date_gmt":"2021-06-11T09:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=560390"},"modified":"2021-06-11T05:06:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T09:06:53","slug":"how-to-make-china-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-to-make-china-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make China Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-to-make-china-pay%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=560390&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/GettyImages-1231506352.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>The debate over the origins of the coronavirus\u2014did it come from a wet market in Wuhan or from the virology lab nearby\u2014has exposed the bias of media and technology companies and the potential danger of so-called gain of function research. But it also has led to something of an intellectual cul-de-sac. Barring a high-level defection from the Chinese Communist Party, we are unlikely ever to learn the answer. And even if we did have conclusive evidence one way or another, we still would have to decide what to do about it. The real question isn\u2019t whether the pandemic is China\u2019s fault. It\u2019s whether China will pay a price for the catastrophic damage it caused the world.<\/p>\n<p>Wherever the virus came from, we know that the Chinese government lied about it for weeks. Dr. Ai Fen shared information about a novel coronavirus with her colleagues on December 30, 2019. The next day, as Lawrence Wright recounts in <em>The Plague Year<\/em>, China removed social media posts that mentioned &#8220;unknown Wuhan pneumonia&#8221; or &#8220;Wuhan Seafood Market.&#8221; Dr. Li Wenliang, who warned the public that the virus could be transmitted from human to human, was arrested and forced to deliver a televised confession. He died of COVID-19 on February 6, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Beijing prevaricated for a month while the deadly pandemic spread. China did not allow the World Health Organization to visit Wuhan until January 20, 2020. The same day, one of China\u2019s top doctors finally admitted the obvious: COVID-19 is a communicable disease. By the time the Communist leadership took action, it was too late. On January 21, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed the first case of coronavirus in America. China did not quarantine Wuhan until January 22. &#8220;By that time,&#8221; according to Wright, &#8220;nearly half the population of Wuhan had already left the city for Chinese New Year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The dishonesty and incompetence of the Chinese Communist Party turned a national crisis into a global one. A March 2020 study <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/news\/2020\/03\/covid-19-china.page\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimated<\/a> that cases might have been reduced by anywhere from 66 percent to 95 percent if Chinese authorities had acted earlier. Why was Beijing slow to move? Because bureaucratic collectivist societies such as Communist China are especially prone to delays and coverups as underlings attempt to avoid punishment from above. The same&nbsp;powers of draconian coercion that China used to lock down its population inspired fear among the midlevel and regional officials who allowed the virus to leave China in the first place. The problem wasn\u2019t scientific. It was political. And punishment is deserved.<\/p>\n<p>What to do? Writing in the<em> Washington Post<\/em>, Mike Pompeo and Scooter Libby <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2021\/06\/07\/pompeo-libby-china-covid-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">call<\/a> on the &#8220;leading democracies&#8221; to &#8220;act together,&#8221; leveraging &#8220;their great economic power&#8221; to &#8220;persuade China to curb its dangerous viral research activities, cooperate with the investigation of the coronavirus\u2019s origins, and, over time, pay some measure of the pandemic\u2019s damages to other nations.&#8221; It\u2019s a worthy strategy with a potentially fatal flaw: The other democracies might put economics ahead of accountability.<\/p>\n<p>Another proposal in Congress would strip China of its sovereign immunity and make it liable for damages in U.S. courts. That plan would also leave American foreign policy dependent on outside actors\u2014in this case, judges. And millions of potential claimants attempting to seize Chinese assets in the United States could make for a mess.<\/p>\n<p>China never will volunteer to open its labs. Nor will it compensate either nations or individuals for the havoc it unleashed. Costs must be imposed that Beijing cannot avoid.<\/p>\n<p>I have three suggestions. Each is more controversial than the last. But all of them would ensure that China paid some price for its lax hygiene and sanitation standards, loosey-goosey research protocols, and reckless attitude toward human freedom and human life.<\/p>\n<p><em>Engage Taiwan<\/em>. To its credit, the Biden administration has continued the stepped-up engagement with Taiwan that began under President Trump. In April, Biden sent an unofficial delegation to the island that included his close friend Chris Dodd. Most recently, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai raised the prospect of new trade talks in a conversation with her Taiwanese counterpart. This pattern of contacts bothers mainland China to no end.<\/p>\n<p>Keep it up. But also do more to train and equip Taiwanese military forces, as my American Enterprise Institute colleagues Gary Schmitt and Michael Mazza <a href=\"https:\/\/thedispatch.com\/p\/the-end-of-strategic-ambiguity-regarding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">suggested<\/a> last year in <em>The Dispatch<\/em>. Taiwan is a reminder that Chinese people can be free and that open societies can deal effectively with pandemics. The very existence of Chinese democracy in Taiwan is a threat to the legitimacy of Communist rule in the mainland. It\u2019s an obstacle to Beijing\u2019s ambitions in the Pacific. Taiwan\u2019s defense is imperative.<\/p>\n<p><em>Boycott the Olympics<\/em>. One day before he left office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo <a href=\"https:\/\/2017-2021.state.gov\/determination-of-the-secretary-of-state-on-atrocities-in-xinjiang\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> that the Chinese Communist Party &#8220;has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.&#8221; Here, too, the Biden administration has not deviated from its predecessor\u2019s course. The United States openly accuses its arch-rival of crimes against humanity. This is a pretty big deal, is it not?<\/p>\n<p>Well, start acting like it. Why the participation of U.S. officials in the Beijing Olympics next year is even up for debate is a mystery. The White House has said that it is not exploring a boycott. That needs to change. On June 7 a bipartisan resolution was introduced in Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/politics\/us-lawmakers-urge-international-olympic-committe-to-move-2022-winter-games-from-beijing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">demanding<\/a> that the International Olympic Committee explore other venues. A declaration that no U.S. government personnel will participate because of China\u2019s actions at home and abroad would embarrass Beijing. It would encourage other democracies to do the same. China deserves neither the honor of nor the revenue from the participation of U.S. officials. Let the athletes compete. But cheer them on from home.<\/p>\n<p><em>Impose a carbon tariff<\/em>. President Biden has also maintained the tariffs that President Trump levied against Chinese goods. Economist Irwin Stelzer of the Hudson Institute has a better plan. He would replace these tariffs with a border tax on the carbon content of Chinese exports. The strategy has appeal for environmentalists and China hawks alike. Everyone knows that China is the world\u2019s largest emitter. Everyone knows that China\u2019s promise of greenhouse gas reduction is worthless. Beijing won\u2019t do anything that jeopardizes the economic growth on which it bases its claim to rule.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In effect,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/irwinstelzer.com\/2021\/04\/19\/biden-has-the-weapon-to-slow-climate-change-a-border-tax\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">writes<\/a> Stelzer, &#8220;by selling us \u2018dirty\u2019 products, China is adding to the competitive advantage it has from selling us stuff made by slave and other laborers paid wages with which we cannot decently compete, around $2 per hour in Beijing.&#8221; The EU already is at work on what it calls a &#8220;Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism&#8221; on Chinese exports. By pushing for a carbon tariff of its own, the Biden administration would please not only hawks and greens, but also the European allies whose opinion it values so highly.<\/p>\n<p>The problem with a &#8220;carbon border adjustment mechanism,&#8221; of course, is that the process of calculating a good&#8217;s carbon content might turn out to be overly complicated, bureaucratic, and subject to politicization. I\u2019m not in the habit of taking economic advice from Brussels. But these problems must be weighed against the justice and potential benefits of such a tax. And the additional cost could be rebated to low-income U.S. consumers along the lines that Senator Tom Cotton <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cotton.senate.gov\/news\/press-releases\/cotton-introduces-tariff-rebate-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposed<\/a> in a slightly different context in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, whether or not the United States adopts a tax on Chinese carbon is less important than moving the debate from the pandemic\u2019s origins to the pandemic\u2019s endgame. The despotic regime whose malign indifference killed so many and cost so much cannot be allowed to pretend that nothing happened. We can hold China responsible. And we can make China pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The debate over the origins of the coronavirus\u2014did it come from a wet market in Wuhan or from the virology lab nearby\u2014has exposed the bias of media and technology companies &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1896046,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1896046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}