Opinion | As the world focuses on Covid-19, is China exploiting the distraction in the South China Sea? Only if you believe US propaganda

China has not stopped its activities in its claimed areas but neither have other claimant countries – and nor has the US, which continues its provocative freedom of navigation operations. Singling out China merely promotes US propaganda

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Published: 9:30am, 27 Apr 2020Updated: 9:33am, 28 Apr 2020

A swell of China bashing over its behaviour in the South China Sea during the Covid-19 pandemic has become evident of late. Yes, China has continued its activities in the area. But so have other claimant countries and their contractors. More importantly, so has China’s No 1 accuser and strategic competitor – the United States.

As one prominent China critic put it: “A storyline has developed over the last few weeks suggesting that China is taking advantage of global distraction during the pandemic to increase its assertiveness in the South China Sea … [But] China hasn’t changed its behaviour at all in response to the coronavirus pandemic.”

He added: “If anything has changed, it is that continuing [these activities] in the middle of a pandemic leaves observers more scandalised than they otherwise might be.”

It is unrealistic to expect China to suspend its activities while others proceeded apace. Criticising it for not doing so is to set up a straw man.

Chinese vessels have indeed been involved in several incidents during the pandemic. The sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat in China-claimed waters off the Paracel Islands served as a lightning rod for China critics, who lumped this incident with many others.

A major stimulus was the April 6 US State Department statement that said it was “seriously concerned” and that the “incident is the latest in a long string of PRC actions to assert unlawful maritime claims”.

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