Looking for scapegoat, politicians in both the UK and US resort to demonizing China

They may not be at the same level of intensity, but the United Kingdom’s and United States’ political situations under the pressure of COVID-19 are strikingly similar.

In the UK — much like in the US where certain voices in government want to shift the blame for their own prevention failures onto China — British Foreign Secretary Dominic Rabb stated last week that “business as usual” with Beijing cannot continue. Then in response to the report, in an interview with Sky News, former government minister Iain Duncan Smith, a local critic of Beijing, criticized China’s “lack of transparency”.

In tandem, some UK media outlets are now endorsing the conspiracy theory fanned by politicians across the Atlantic, and the US’ Fox News, that the “Wuhan lab” “made the virus” that causes COVID-19. The standout among them is the Daily Mail, which acts as an unofficial mouthpiece for right-wing factions within Britain’s Conservative Party.

The debate is becoming increasingly toxic.

Two countries which failed to adequately prepare against COVID-19 now see fit to demonize China, weaponizing a politics of revenge and apparent injustice over the pandemic.

Make no mistake, the UK did very little in preparation. Even now, many of its citizens do not seem to be taking the situation seriously.

It is not inaccurate to say that the UK has experienced, like others in the West, a great deal of cultural complacency in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Heavily vested in the belief of Western civilizational supremacy, the initial outbreak in China was not taken seriously. It was viewed as the product of an inferior ideology and culture which could not possibly happen in the UK, where the people had a “superior” way of life. New viruses and diseases were seen as merely a product of inferior “oriental” countries which had to learn from the West. In essence, something to be observed rather than experienced.

The evidence for this complacency is abundant. On re-entering the UK at the beginning of March, one found no airport scanning or screenings, and no health questionnaires. Anyone potentially carrying the virus could enter without checks. People did not — and largely still do not — wear face masks, and many remain ambivalent on social distancing.

It is fair to say that for many in Britain, the coronavirus was never considered a real threat. When the pandemic did hit, the concept of herd immunity gained the upper hand for a while. By the time the government eventually took strict action, it was too late. The window from January to late March was filled with inaction.

And now, as a result, the urge to blame China for the predicament is swelling, pushed by many voices in the right-wing media and the Conservative Party.

Instead of taking responsibility for the country’s own clear governance failures and lack of a social response, the prevailing view on the virus is that it is not meant to be in Britain. This produces a superficial and opportunistic sense of outrage toward Beijing, embedding the belief that a “backward China has attacked the UK’s superior way of life” and there ought to be a “reckoning”.

Criticism against the government’s lack of preparation is gaining traction amid a series of scandals, including a growing unofficial death toll in elderly care homes and shortages of personal protective equipment. That means this “politics of anger” directed at Beijing is not going away anytime soon, especially as British polls are starting to show small shifts to Labour.

As we are seeing with the White House in the US, the politics of deflection is both tempting and convincing. Many among the public are more inclined to believe in the “inferior oriental enemy” than to adequately hold their own governments to account. 

On the whole, the evidence is clear that the British government failed on multiple levels to prepare, make contingency plans and warn the public of a potential COVID-19 pandemic. Yet it is China which ends up as the scapegoat.

The UK must do some deep self-reflection — not concerning Beijing, but how our own complacency got us into this mess.

The author is a British political analyst, writer and columnist. 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.