Health

Covid 19: Catholic Church of Asia head Cardinal Charles Maung Bo holds Chinese govt accountable

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 07 Apr 2020, 11:51 am

Yangon (Myanmar) : Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, head of the Catholic Church in Asia, has minced no words in blaming the Chinese regime for the global Covid-9 contagion. The prelate, who is also the Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar, wants China to accept moral culpability for the pandemic and pay compensation for the worldwide havoc it has caused.

“International voices are rising against the negligent attitude shown by China, especially its despotic Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by its strong man Xi,” Cardinal wrote recently and demanded an apology from the Chinese rulers for negligence in governance that escalated the pandemic.

Cardinal Bo lauded the people of India for expressing resolve and human solidarity and praised the Indian administration for its humane approach and taking early measures to contain the pandemic.

Nearly 1.3 million people have been infected so far and 70,000 have died.

Cardinal Bo leads the Myanmar Church’s national coordination team on Covid-19 that prioritizes prevention and awareness campaigns as well as offering quarantine centers in the 16 dioceses across the country in collaboration with public health departments.

James Kraska, an esteemed law professor, writing in the latest issue of War on Rocks published on March 23, says, China is legally responsible for Covid-19 and claims could be made in trillions.

An epidemiological model at the University of Southampton found that had China acted responsibly and quickly, the number affected by the virus could have been reduced by 95 per cent. Its failure has unleashed a global contagion causing thousands of deaths, it said.

The soft spoken Cardinal was insistent when he pointed out, “But there is one government that has primary responsibility as a result of what it has done and what it has failed to do, and that is the regime of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing.”

He further clarified, “Let me be clear – it is the Chinese Communist Party that has been responsible, not the people of China, and no one should respond to this crisis with racial hatred towards the people of China.”

The Cardinal had words of empathy for Chinese people and called for sympathy and solidarity when he said, “Indeed, the Chinese people were the first victims of this virus and have long been the primary victims of their repressive regime.”

The prelate decried the repression, lies and corruption of the Chinese Communist Party responsible for the pandemic. He said, “Instead of protecting the public and supporting doctors, the Chinese Communist Party silenced the whistleblowers. Worse than that, doctors who tried to raise the alarm – like Dr Li Wenliang in Wuhan Central Hospital, who issued a warning to fellow medics on December 30, 2019, were ordered by the police to `stop making false comments’.”

Dr Li, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist, was told he would be investigated for “spreading rumors” and was forced by the police to sign a confession. He later died after contracting corona virus.

Cardinal Bo recalled, “Young citizen journalists who tried to report on the virus then disappeared. Li Zehua, Chen Qiushi and Fang Bin are among those believed to have been arrested simply for telling the truth. Legal scholar Xu Zhiyong has also been detained after publishing an open letter criticizing the Chinese regime’s response.”

Decrying the Chinese Communist Party’s conduct as symptomatic of its increasingly repressive nature the 72-year-old cardinal said, “In recent years we have seen an intense crackdown on freedom of expression in China. Lawyers, bloggers, dissidents and civil society activists have been rounded up and have disappeared. In particular, the regime has launched a campaign against religion, resulting in the destruction of thousands of churches and crosses and the incarceration of at least one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps.”

An independent tribunal in London, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who prosecuted Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, accused the Chinese Communist Party of forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. And Hong Kong – once one of Asia’s most open cities – has seen its freedoms, human rights and the rule of law dramatically eroded.

The cardinal affirmed China as a country “is a great and ancient civilization that has contributed so much to the world throughout history.”