Nikolai Vladivostok is the blog handle of an Australian expatriate who has worked extensively in the Horn of Africa. He made four posts that contain good information about China, and its influence on the World Health Organization and Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of WHO, which I haven’t come across elsewhere.
Here are links to the four posts—all well worth reading.
Dr. Tedros
How did China wrest control of the WHO?
How does Tedros manipulate the WHO?
N.V. described how the Chinese have extended their economic influence into Africa and used their leverage on African governments to influence United Nations agencies, including the World Health Organization, and how that paid off during the coronavirus pandemic.
I’ve been skeptical of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s attempt to blame China for the spread of the virus. I see it as a cynical attempt to divert attention from U.S. failures and to weaken China politically.
But propaganda—systemic attempts to influence public opinion—is not necessarily false. There is circumstantial evidence that the virus could have originated in a Chinese research lab (not a bio-warfare lab) and escaped into the world through negligence. I don’t claim to know the whole story, but there certainly is something to investigate.
The Chinese government has used the coronavirus pandemic to increase its geo-political influence. It presents itself to the world as a kindly helper—the opposite of the U.S. government, whose diplomacy is based on threats and naked self-interest.
As the old saying goes, you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. But if you are a fly, it doesn’t matter how you are caught.
Tags: Africa, China, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Dr. Tedros, World Health Organization
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
May 8, 2020 at 4:44 am |
I share your skepticism of Pompeo. I was just about sold on the lab theory until the Neocons started selling it.
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