A Few Minutes with Professor Irwin Cotler

You have called the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “Chernobyl moment.” What did you mean by that?

Like Chernobyl, the CCP’s handling of the coronavirus breakout in Wuhan is a self-inflicted wound that not only harmed China’s own citizens but has inflicted untold damage on the entire global community. It has exposed the CCP’s underlying culture of criminality and corruption.

What are you referring to by that culture of criminality and corruption?

The CCP is one of the greatest human rights violators in the world. It has jailed more journalists than any other country in the world. It has moved aggressively against what it calls the “five poisons” by holding Tibet captive for decades and uprooting Tibetan culture; keeping one million Uyghur Muslims in various levels of reeducation camps; harvesting organs of Falun Gong prisoners; violating its treaty obligations in attacking pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong; and by maintaining a perpetually threatening posture toward Taiwan.

But none of this has exactly been a secret. And yet the West has generally turned a blind eye toward China’s violations. European firms have tens of billions of dollars invested in Chinese plants and co-ventures, and China provides the world’s largest market for their goods. Will the Europeans dare to upset the Chinese giant?

You are right that China has long received a pass on its human rights violations. Just today came the news that the EU report on the pandemic dramatically downplayed Chinese culpability to avoid arousing Chinese wrath.