By ANONYMOUS
Ethical public messaging should not aim to be offensive.
Neither should it be dismissive of a corrupt government.
I am writing this piece anonymously for two reasons. First, my American organization would never clear this, even if they had time to look at it. Second, the Chinese Government would find time to look at it and kick me out of their country. For this article a Chinese citizen would, at a minimum, be sent to jail.
Right now Americans are arguing about what to call this virus. People who want to pin blame on China call it “Wuhan Virus” or “Chinese Virus.” Other people say that this is racist or xenophobic or just plain mean and we should call it “COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease).”
Words matter. What should we call this virus?
There are two problems with calling this virus Wuhan Virus or Chinese Virus.
First, there are many Chinese and Wuhanese who are not to blame for this disaster. One courageous doctor in Wuhan tried to alert other doctors and was warned by authorities to desist. Sadly, Dr. Li died after contracting the virus, leaving his pregnant widow and an infant child. Dr. Li was one of many who tried, against great odds, to stop the virus early on. Since then, other Chinese have sacrificed to treat patients and bring the virus under control. We should not tarnish their image or memory by seeming to pin this on a whole people, nation or province.
Second, by identifying the disease only with Wuhan or China, we trigger the resentment of many Chinese people, causing them to rally around their flag, and by implication around their government. This is unfortunate, because many Chinese want to honestly criticize their government’s faulty response. They want to change the current system to prevent this kind of disaster from happening again. By seeming to criticize their whole country we undercut these critics and reformers.
For the good of China and the world, our words must honor the Chinese who sacrificed to fight this virus and support the Chinese who want to make needed changes.
On the other hand, simply calling the coronavirus COVID-19 could erase the memory of the Chinese government’s oversight, which is why the Chinese government insist we call this virus COVID-19. The WHO agreed to that designation because they did to want to get kicked out of China. Like it or not, we are stuck with COVID-19. This term will gain currency over time.
But we can re-brand and re-purpose this term. In the Chinese environment where the wrong words can land you in prison, people re-purpose words and give them a secret meaning all the time. It is the best that they can do. There is a wink, a nod and an understanding. Outside of China, we are free to fill an old word with new meaning, explain it when able and slyly wink when necessary.
Even if my proposed re-branding of COVID-19 never gains currency, it helps explain the problem and identify possible solutions. Let’s use COVID-19 as an acronym and understand how and why this virus has become a worldwide disaster (“D”).
“CO” stands for Communist, or the Communist Party of China. China is not a Communist country, and it does not even try to be. To most Chinese people, the idea that their government is Communist is a joke (or just a wink). There is greater wealth inequality in China than in the United States. But the Party that controls the Government calls itself Communist for historical reasons and let’s respect their self-designation.
“V” stands for Vertical. Putin described his recentralization of power in Russia as the “Power Vertical.” Imagine a vertical line with Putin, the Czar, an Emperor or a Chairman at the top. Information and requests flow up the vertical line. Power, permission and resources flow down the vertical line to underlings. In a Power Vertical, the person at the top is theoretically very powerful and effective.
All political leaders are tempted by the Power Vertical, even good ones. Our American Constitution recognizes this tendency. That is why we have a system of checks and balances in our government.
China (and Russia) for historical and cultural reasons has a stronger tendency to the Power Vertical. Some of the worst disasters in Chinese history are due to the Power Vertical, including the current virus disaster.
Why is the Power Vertical to blame for the current virus disaster? A Power Vertical has features that tend to allow small problems to become big problems, which is exactly what happened in Wuhan in November and December of 2019.
Imagine a fire in the engine room of a ship. In a Power Vertical, a crewman comes upon a small fire. He does not take initiative himself, but reports the fire to the Chief Engineer. The Chief Engineer calls the bridge to request directions from the Captain. The Captain is in the bathroom. When the Captain emerges, he sends directions back down the vertical. By now, the small fire is a large fire.
The first problem with a Power Vertical is that bad or unwelcome news is slow to travel up the vertical. The second problem is that unwelcome information must go through many reluctant layers. The third problem is that the vertical discourages initiative at lower levels. The fourth problem is that permission, power and resources flow downward slowly at first.
Once engaged on a problem, the Power Vertical can be very effective. But by the time the Power Vertical engages the small problem is a big one.
This is a perfect description of what happened in Wuhan. Local authorities at first covered up the bad news, then tried unsuccessfully to get the layers above them engaged. Finally, after the epidemic was out of control, they took the blame. This is another feature of the Power Vertical. The person at the top of the Power Vertical is never to blame. If only he (it is always a “he”) had known, he would have acted sooner. Of course, we know that the person at the top is to blame for creating or abetting a Power Vertical system that keeps him in the dark until it is too late. In China that leader is Xi Jinping. He is not blameless no matter what official Chinese media says.
“I” stands for Insulated. Insulation keeps out unwanted sounds and protects against unwanted changes (as in temperature). An insulated system does not allow for independent actors or voices outside the Power Vertical. There is no free media, no opposing political party, no independent religious, academic or economic interest that can criticize the Power Vertical.
Dr. Li, before his death, put his finger on the problem when he said, “A healthy society has more than one voice.”
Think about that for a minute. In China there is just one voice. The Chinese government system is insulated. Picture that vertical line again. On the one hand, the Power Vertical inhibits unwelcome information from moving up the vertical line. On the other hand, the Power Vertical insulates itself from outside criticism or from information that challenges Party orthodoxy.
A couple nights ago I was watching CNN and an interview with Mike Chinoy. Mike led off with a routine acknowledgement that the Chinese government’s initial response to the virus was slow. Just as he pivoted to praise the effective response when the central government finally engaged, my TV went black. The censors were a little slow, but they did what they always do. They insulated. They allowed only one voice. They heard criticism and blocked the channel.
Independent voices are visited by the police. They sign documents promising to desist and to not destroy social harmony. If they persist, other things happen to them. People learn to be quiet. Even the NBA figures it out.
“D” stands for Disaster. That’s what we have. President Trump said, “The world is paying a very big price for what they did.” He is right of course. A “VID” is a “Vertically Insulated Disaster.” If you look at the other VIDs in history, you will see that most impacted their own people.
This one happens to affect the whole world. “Q-VID 1839-60” was the disaster of the Opium Wars. The Qing Emperor could not learn the truth about Qing defeats at the hands of the British. Every lost battle was presented as a victory. The Power Vertical and the lack of independent sources meant that the Emperor was in ETHICS IN DIPLOMACY publicdiplomacymagazine.com SPRING/SUMMER 2020 85 the dark and ineffective. Q-VID 1839-60 demonstrates that pre-Communist China could experience a VID.
“COVID 58-62” was the disaster of Mao’s Great Leap Forward. The people at the bottom reported false agricultural surpluses up the Power Vertical because that is what Mao wanted to hear. By the time COVID 58-62 was over, between 18 and 45 million Chinese lay dead of starvation. Mao never apologized and his visage appears on all paper money to this day. Of course, if only Mao had known, fewer Chinese may have perished.
Another outstanding VID in history is “R-VID 41.” That’s when Stalin would not believe reports that Hitler was preparing to attack the Soviet Union. The Power Vertical did its job and filtered out information unwanted by Stalin. The few messages that made it up the vertical were dis-believed, and some messengers were shot dead. There were no outside voices. The Soviet Union was unnecessarily surprised by Operation Barbarossa, the massive Nazi assault. About 27 million perished in that war, mainly because of R-VID 41.
“R-VID 86” was Chernobyl. All the vertically insulated aspects of the Soviet Union worked to keep the disaster quiet until Swedish sensors thousands of miles away picked up increased radiation levels.
The self-defeating nature of most VIDs and the fact that most victims are subjects of their own vertically insulated governments means that those citizens have strong reasons to make changes. They have the most to lose.
Vertically insulated systems don’t just produce big disasters that make it into history books (although COVID 58-62 is still not well covered in Chinese history books). These systems enable corruption, fraud, industrial accidents and all sorts of bad practices. These banal and daily costs are borne by the hapless and suffering citizenry over decades. Mao probably set China back 30 years with his various economic stupidities, even apart from COVID 58-62.
Now that our world is more globalized, a “COVID” as I’ve defined it can kill more than just Chinese citizens. It can become a worldwide pandemic.
What VIDs will be next? Will we see a “COVID25,” another pandemic? Will there be a “COVID-29” when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy engages with the U.S. Navy? History teaches that vertically insulated governments, while they do some things well (like building railroads), fail spectacularly when speed, creativity and initiative are needed.
The Chinese Communist Vertically Insulated Disaster of 2019 (COVID-19) is a disaster for the whole world. We are locking down, hardening borders, taking casualties. The government responsible for this disaster wants us to move on. They want the world to think there is nothing to see here - after all, they can build hospitals from scratch in two weeks.
But we know what really happened. And we know why. If the vertically insulated nature of the present Chinese Communist regime does not change, something like COVID-19 may happen again.
On March 19, the authorities issued a solemn apology to Dr. Li’s family and punished the two police officers who told him to stop spreading rumors. When they build his monument in Tiananmen Square, we can only hope that they will write below his name in bold Chinese characters, “A healthy society has more than one voice.”
Words matter.