By Denis Korkodinov
The coronavirus pandemic has intensified the controversy between the US and China. Both sides accuse each other of using biological weapons. In addition, according to a number of sources, the US intelligence agencies began collecting information on all laboratory studies performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences over the past 20 years.
Washington intends to use the information base thus gathered subsequently to formally charge the Chinese leadership with secret development and use of weapons of mass destruction. Some experts note that as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, there is a great risk of war between the United States and China.
Apparently, Washington and Beijing were already on the verge of a big confrontation. Now Coronavirus can be used as casus belli, which creates a threat to put the world on the brink of disaster.
The Sino-American confrontation, it would seem, was limited exclusively to the conduct of a trade war and did not portend the use of more radical methods of international pressure. However, in the context of the pandemic, a very stable group of experts has appeared who believe that COVID-19 is of laboratory origin. And, apparently, the leading representatives of regional players, as well as country leaders, are beginning to listen to the opinions of experts. In particular, on March 27, 2020, the former ambassador of Pakistan to the United Nations, Abdullah Harun, in his public video message posted on his Facebook page officially announced that coronavirus is a biological weapon.
At the same time, the Pakistani diplomat blamed Israel. On March 17, 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US President Donald Trump publicly emphasized that COVID-19 was produced in the Chinese city of Wuhan. In turn, the representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry
Zhao Lijian posted on his Twitter page that the coronavirus was brought to China by the U.S. military in October 2019. In turn, some media, citing competent sources, indicate that coronavirus is the result of laboratory experiments conducted at the Walter Reed Army Research Institute, which is subordinate to the U.S. Army Medical Research and Logistics Department ( USAMRMC) is headquartered in Fort Detrick, Maryland.
The theory of the artificial creation of COVID-19 is currently the most popular and has a huge number of supporters, including leaders of many states that have access to nuclear weapons. Of course, sooner or later this point of view may become official in accordance with the method of “Windows Overton”. However, it can be infallibly asserted that no state in the world or group of influence wishes to take responsibility for creating a coronavirus, as a result of the spread of which mankind risks losing, according to some experts, more than 3 billion people over the next 10 years. Under these conditions, it is quite obvious that responsibility will be transferred to competing states, as the United States and China are now trying to do.
On March 18, 2020, Beijing ordered the expulsion of more than 10 American journalists from the country who, according to the Chinese intelligence services, were engaged in intelligence activities and showed great interest in Chinese virologists, microbiologists, and geneticists. Earlier, Chinese journalists were extradited from the United States, who, according to representatives of the US law enforcement agencies, tried to obtain secret documents about biological developments produced by order of the Pentagon. This was a signal that Beijing and Washington took the process of collecting and systematizing evidence of the use of weapons of mass destruction quite seriously.
The economic damage caused to the US economy as a result of the coronavirus, as well as a sharp drop in oil prices, can probably serve as an additional motive for applying radical methods of influence in relation to competing countries. This will affect not only China, Russia, Iran, but the entire international community as a whole, which, as a result of two consecutive strikes (dumping of prices for “black gold” at the initiative of Saudi Arabia and the coronavirus pandemic), may simply not withstand the third blow in the form of a large-scale military conflict.
Mutual accusations of the United States and China are not limited to high-profile statements by senior politicians and diplomats. In this case, militaristic rhetoric is only the “tip of the iceberg” and reflects the preparation of both states for the implementation of the worst-case scenario – a conflict where, if you follow the logic of Chinese and American experts, biological weapons are already been using.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights).