China is beginning to face intense international criticism thanks to their handling of this coronavirus crisis, and speculation is on the rise.
There are some who have even insinuated that China could be on the hook for damages when this is all said and done, thanks to a number of factors that has led to the belief that they allowed an unsuspecting world to be unfairly targeted.
When Europe’s medical community began complain their first-hand disease data, there seemed to be no way to compare that data to China’s in any meaningful way. In the USA, the numbers continued to defy China’s models.
Then reports surfaced saying that the China may have lied about the origin of the virus as well.
Now, on top of all of this, it appears as though China is profiting off of the virus.
Countries already deeply indebted to Beijing through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) face increasing economic hardship caused by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday.
China uses the BRI to establish economically predatory infrastructure projects across the globe, expanding its sphere of influence. Chinese loans fund infrastructure projects in over 100 developing nations across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America through the BRI, an initiative estimated to be worth $8 trillion.
According to the Center for Global Development (CGD), 15 out of 68 BRI partner countries face a significant risk of debt distress due to economic challenges caused by the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.
Many countries around the world have practically shut down their economies in an effort to comply with mandatory government lockdowns meant to curb the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, significantly disrupting global supply and demand chains. For heavily indebted countries like China’s BRI partners – already struggling before the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic – the looming economic recession may spell disaster.
This will undoubtedly pour fuel on the fire of the online conspiracy theorists who believe that coronavirus was release unto us by 5G-activated bats, or some other unbelievable nonsense.
