Chinese embassy rebuts Bilahari

The Chinese Embassy in Singapore has responded to an article written by veteran diplomat Bilahari Kausikan, which touched on how the Covid-19 outbreak starkly highlighted China's strengths and weaknesses.

The article, which Mr Bilahari originally wrote for Canadian international affairs magazine Global Brief's blog, was reprinted in The Straits Times on Monday with the headline, "China's inflection point and the CCP's fundamental dilemma".

The Chinese embassy spokesman said the article by Mr Bilahari, a former diplomat who is now chairman of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore, was similar to the "stereotype cliche of Western anti-China voices" in its misinterpretation of China's political system and the leadership system under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The spokesman said that at a difficult time when the Chinese people are making sacrifices to fight the Covid-19 outbreak, "the sense of justice of the author to ideologically denigrate China and sell his long-held prejudice and even hostility towards China has to be questioned". Whether a country's developmental strategy is right depends on that country's situation, said the spokesman, citing China's progress over the past 70 years to become the world's second-largest economy, and lifting over 800 million people out of poverty.

Those achievements were made under the leadership of the CCP and the "system of socialism with Chinese characteristics", benefiting not just China but the rest of the world. "Though Mr Bilahari himself did not deny China's great achievements, he still criticised the political system and the leadership system that created them. Actually it is logically self-contradictory," added the spokesman.

He added that the country has united around the CCP Central Committee headed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, its general secretary, since the 18th National Congress in 2012. "China is striving hard to modernise the system and capacity for governance. All constructive comments and suggestions are welcomed, but arrogance and prejudice through coloured glasses are unacceptable," said the spokesman.

He also said the Covid-19 coronavirus is "the enemy to all mankind", and that Mr Xi is "in full command, and the whole country is united as one" in battling the epidemic, bringing "positive results".

The spokesman questioned why the same criticism was not levelled when the H1N1 flu originated in North America and spread globally in 2009, saying: "At the moment, what the world needs most is unity and trust, not the political virus that keeps people at bay."