Sorry, another rant today, but here goes:

Nobody wants to be labelled “racist”, and these days we are all hyper-sensitive about avoiding it. The mere hint of an inflammatory post sends us scurrying to the comfort of kitten videos or pictures of your mate’s latest garden project. Probably just as well, as to do otherwise is to invite the wrath of countless anonymous self-styled sentinels primed to be offended at the drop of a hat.

The problem with this sort of behaviour is that, in our efforts to appease societal expectations, we abdicate our individual duty to call out behaviour that is just plain wrong. At best, we assume that the thorny issues of the world are somebody else’s problem, and at worst, we actively defend what we should in fact be condemning.

As a liberal society, our First Big Mistake is how often we underestimate threats. We underestimated the effect this new virus would have on freedoms and ways of life we once took for granted. It could never happen to us. Well, it’s happening. It’s been silently spreading, lulling governments into a false sense of security until it was too late, and we find ourselves in the situation we do. Even countries that had ample time to prepare, and the resources to do so, have been caught out. We know now that things that happen in far-off lands have a nasty way of turning up on our doorstep.

Our Second Big Mistake is that we assume every society is like ours. Let me be clear: On an individual level, everyone is like us. Our hopes and dreams, fears, wants and needs correlate horizontally across borders, complexions, and religious beliefs. Vertically, there are marked differences: wealthier people have different requirements than poorer people, but these differences are still at least comprehensible.

Societies on the other hand, shaped by thousands of years of history, culture and politics constantly evolve, grow, shrink, thrive and decay. They are in effect organisms competing for resources on a finite globe, and like organisms, they often prey on, and consume each other. There is a Darwinian natural selection of societies at work, and only the fittest survive.

Sometimes, as in the Second World War, liberal society acts definitively and decisively to face a predatory society head on. It unites in a fight for survival against a very real, tangible, evil. The luxury of that war was that the battle lines were clearly drawn, the enemy, their strategy and movement neatly packaged, depicted on a board and obliterated.

The threat we face today is far more insidious. Like the virus, it has been taking over the world for some time now, silently and gently. Its tools inspire admiration for their sheer cunning and effectiveness. Its Borg-like intent is frightening in its intensity, scale and vision. Its tentacles have already encircled the globe, and their grip is tightening. You might know it as the Chinese Communist Party.

What has been innocuously taking place for the last 10 years has been thrown into sharp relief by the spotlight of the pandemic, and now we sit up and realise that it may already be too late to do anything about it. The scorpion has been nudged, and its claws and sting are up and ready to defend itself. China’s grand plan is laid bare for all to see: to suck up global natural resources and monetary wealth and channel them back home.

Control of its own population, we now know, is effected using Big Data surveillance, reformation camps and merit systems that reward “model citizens” with access to travel and amenities. Around the world though, the regime’s methods adapt to the prevailing conditions, using its vast reserves of cash as a primary tool.

In Africa, easy-term infrastructure loans to cash-strapped governments, secured against natural resources and the financed assets themselves have left many countries in China’s thrall. Resource extraction is well on its way in countries with weak regulatory systems, with resulting untold damage to the environment. With this comes an increased Chinese military presence, and a foothold in Djibouti will soon lead to other bases around the continent.

In the West, Chinese state-owned corporations own an ever-growing stake in profitable companies and real estate. The dividends and income from these assets are repatriated back to the mainland, and valuable intellectual capital is simply appropriated and cloned.

The draconian shutdown of Hubei province and other major cities achieved the aim of controlling the epidemic on the mainland, but there was either breath-taking cynicism or unforgivable criminal negligence in allowing international flights out of China to the rest of the world, carrying contagion. This led directly to the apocalyptic situation in northern Italy, if not other countries.

During the crisis, Chinese companies and individuals abroad have been shown to act as extensions of the State machinery. The recent worldwide appropriation of medical supplies by the State-backed global property giant Greenland Group is a case in point.

The regime’s true colours have nowhere been shown more clearly than now, as they battle to prevent a second wave of the pandemic from occurring. Quarantines and rigorous testing are well and good, but there is a more at play here. The xenophobia being wreaked on foreigners in China, with the tacit approval of the State, is unconscionable. Foreigners are openly being targeted online and to their faces as carriers of the virus.

Despite having been in lockdown with the rest of the population for the last twelve weeks, they are being evicted from their homes, refused entry at restaurants, singled out for testing and forced out of the country. Having blithely allowed the export of the virus to the rest of the world, China is quite prepared to exercise rabid, single-minded self-interest to prevent it coming back. All the while, the Chinese government have made it clear that they expect their citizens around the world to have their human rights protected by host governments.

The lessons are these: The gloves are off. Do your own research and make yourself aware of what’s happening. The Chinese government does not have your best interests at heart, and you are being assimilated. You had probably better start polishing up on your Mandarin.