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The rapid spread of the new coronavirus infection and the intensifying border dispute with China have led India to adopt a hard-line stance toward China. A leading China researcher has called for the possibility of the attack with biological weapons.

The rapid spread of the new coronavirus infection and the intensifying border dispute with China have led India to adopt a hard-line stance toward China. A leading China researcher has called for the possibility of the attack with biological weapons.

――What do you think about the theory that the coronavirus is a Chinese biological weapon?

Since April, the corona infection suddenly spread, and India is the third or fourth largest country in terms of infections in the world today. We were very surprised because we had taken all possible measures to control the virus. In the midst of all this, there have been some speculations that highly infectious biological weapons may have been used.

There is a lot of circumstantial evidence for the theory that “Corona is a Chinese bioweapon”. For example, Israeli scientist Dr. Dany Shoham points out in his paper that China has 42 biological weapons programs. He mentioned that the People’s Liberation Army(PLA) laboratories or the defense industrial complex are involved in the bioweapon programs.

I think that the origin of the coronavirus and the delta-type mutant strain (Indian type) originated from the virus laboratory in Wuhan. Four million people have lost their lives across the globe. This is one of the worst casualties in human-caused disasters in the world. China is responsible for opening up the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other laboratories. It needs to give an explanation on why so many millions of people were killed across the globe.

Waves of Attacks of Viruses and Border Conflict

――We believe that China is trying to expand its territory through border disputes as well as using virus weapons to subvert its virtual enemy, India. In other words, we believe that China is conducting a wave attack. What do you think about this view?

China suddenly attacked India with a military force in the western sector of the border between the two countries. India and China have signed several agreements in the past two decades, stipulating that they shall not mobilize their forces across the borders. However, China mobilized over 20,000 troops and 20 Indian soldiers were killed in June of last year.

China began building new society villages closer to the line of actual control. Each village has over 100 houses, and over 648 villages will be constructed along the borders between India and China. In Tibet, they are building such villages, and it is speculated that they are asking Han Chinese to live in these houses. Some of them are ex-servicemen from the PLA. Some are from the police forces, paramilitary forces, or possibly from the intelligence community. These society residents will be reporting to the government and to the military about the developments in the border areas with India.

These two episodes, one is the spread of the virus, the other is occupation of the disputed land, suggest that China cannot be believed. President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi met in Wuhan in April 2018, and in Chennai in October 2019. We thought that there was a lot of goodwill between the two countries, but these developments suggest that China has adopted deception by painting a picture of normalcy.

Thoroughly De-Coupling on the Economic Front

――Since last year’s border clashes, there has been a movement to boycott Chinese products. Could you tell us specifically how India should counter the series of attacks by China?

In India, anti-China sentiment is growing. The Indian government banned the use of 218 IT applications from China, investments from China, the infrastructure projects, and the Confucius institutes. Also, India did not allow the Huawei 5G for testing in India. India lost nearly $950 billion in trade deficits to China. So for the past decade, the Indian government has been telling the Chinese government to reduce trade deficits. China promised it would import more Indian goods. However, they did not keep that promise.

As a result of this, India has been putting some restrictions on the Chinese exports to India and is in the process of decoupling the China market. The percentage of Chinese trade items that are currently being boycotted is around 2-3%. But of the 4,000 items that India imports from China, 3,000 items can be imported from Southeast Asia and other countries.

Another measure that India took was not joining in the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement), because we think that China is dumping goods in the Indian market by using the RCEP.

In the G7 (leaders of the seven advanced countries) Summit in the U.K., they decided about infrastructure support for developing countries, “B3W (Build Back Better World)”, to counter China’s “One Belt, One Road”.

In order to counter China, it is necessary for democracies to strengthen their cooperation and for the quad, including Japan, Australia, United States, and India to cooperate and hold security dialogues.