Since the founding of the PRC, China Red Cross has existed to serve the Chinese Communist Party.
Sun Shuopeng, Vice President of China’s Red Cross, right, flanked by respiratory diseases expert from the Sichuan University, Zongan Liang, speaks to journalists outside the Spallanzani Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Rome, March 14, 2020.
EU diplomats have expressed concern that China’s mass shipment of medical supplies to member-states had the ulterior motive of extending its influence within the EU, China’s largest trading partner. Chinese diplomats have denounced such interpretations, portraying the country’s global relief aid as a sign of its inherent “kindness” and “humanitarian concerns.”
This moralizing rhetoric, though, has also been accompanied by a string of misinformation, from accusations that the virus originated in the United States to a doctored video falsely showing Italian civilians expressing gratitude toward China. Furthermore, countries like the Netherlands and Spain have had to trash faulty masks and testing kits sent by China.
But perhaps the most worrying aspect of this campaign is that one of its leading faces, China Red Cross, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese Communist Party.
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