The COVID-19 is a critical test of Xi Jinping’s leadership eversince he became the head of the party in November 2012 and started projecting himself as the most powerful Chinese leader after Mao. Xi Jinping is struggling to tackle two urgent problems; fighting the pandemic and getting back the Chinese economy back on tracks. Xi Jinping failed to foresee the pandemic looming.On the contrary, in his New Year Speech, Xi Jinping had spelt out that the year 2020 is very crucial for China to achieve “a moderately prosperous society in all respect”. He talked about removing poverty and making Chinese citizenseconomically comfortable but failed to predict the impending health risks from the Coronavirus. By that time the virus had already spread across Wuhan.At the initial stages, the Chinese leaders tried to downplay the growing effect of the coronavirus showing reluctance on their side, secretive about the spread of the virus and reticent to share the details and the intensity of the epidemic.China has already cancelled its two sessions; annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political consultative conference demonstrating the growing disquiet within the party. Three meetings of the top echelons of China were held in February. These developments point towards the growing disquiet within the party.Despite strict firewall, Chinese citizens are using social media to vent out their frustration that has resulted in rising online memes related to Xi Jinping. The trust of the Chinese people seems to be badly shaken. In1976, the Tangshan earthquake led to the subsequent death of Mao. It is curious to monitor, what the COVOD-19 brings for Xi Jinping in the coming times.
Amidst the COVID-19, Huawei has offered India AI and 5G based technology to fight the pandemic. Should India accept it?
Although in China, technology-related companies such as Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent played a critical role in the fight against virus and accelerated their healthcare initiatives but India is equally trying its best to use its resources to fight the virus. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has been useful in tackling the virus, for example, the robots are being deployed to complete the cleaning and sterilisation process, delivering food and medicine to reduce the human to human contact. Further, facial recognition technology and temperature detection software help to identify people who might have a fever and be may have the virus. Despite its benefits India should not take the Huawei offer. It may be recalled that Huawei has connections with the People’s liberation Army (PLA). It entered India in 1998 and established a research and development centre in Bangalore and later opened its sales and marketing office. The operation of Huawei is already under scanner across the globe. Thus, any equipment or technology of Huawei directly hampers India’s National Security.