BENGALURU: China is undermining our status as the ‘pharmacy of the world’ in many ways. It has shut down many of our API manufacturers by dumping these APIs in the Indian market.
CHINA PAKISTAN CLANDESTINE LINKS: The seizure of 2,560 kg of a cyanocarbon chemical Ortho-Chloro-Benzylidene Malononitrile (CS) in a shipment from China to Pakistan’s defence supplier Rohail Enterprises on 18 April 2024 at Kattupalli port in Tamil Nadu by Indian authorities is an example of Chinese proliferation. This is a tear gas and chemical warfare dual-use substance listed under the 42-nation Wassenaar Arrangement, a voluntary information exchange and export control regime for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies. In the Waco siege or massacre of 1993 in Texas, USA, law enforcement officials used this chemical dissolved in flammable methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK) aerosol in a tear gas attack to flush out the armed religious cult members leading to the building getting engulfed in flames under controversial circumstances and the death of 76 cult members. These chemicals are reported to have caused the death of several protesters near Tahrir Square in Egypt in November 2011. In April this year, the US State Department reported about Chinese research on highly lethal marine neurotoxins like anatoxin (from blue-green algae), saxitoxins (from algal blooms contaminated shellfish), and tetrodotoxin (from puffer fish, globefish, and toadfish) in the guise of preventing seafood poisoning. Many clandestine labs in China are still working on bio and chemical warfare agents and sharing and outsourcing part of their nefarious activities to their proxies in Pakistan. Another seizure at Mumbai in March this year was of dual-use items linked to Pakistan’s nuclear and ballistic missile program.
STEALTHY CHINESE THREATS TO INDIAN HEALTH INDUSTRY: China is undermining our status as the “pharmacy of the world” in many ways. It has shut down many of our Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) manufacturers by dumping these APIs in the Indian market. The quality of these ingredients is suspect and affects the quality of Indian drug formulations, leading to WHO and FDA probes and loss of our pharma reputation. Dependence on China also affects the reliability of our drug supplies. The Chinese also influence WHO to withhold recognition of our drugs and vaccines as they did to Covaxin, our Covid-19 vaccine. Substandard and fake Chinese drugs are shipped with the Made in India label as detailed in my article on 07.11.2021 “Unethical Chinese practices are affecting global health”. Chinese disinformation about the efficacy and quality of Indian drugs and vaccines is another problem. Cyber-attacks on Indian health entities like Sun Pharma, AIIMS, and Safdarjung Hospital expose another critical vulnerability.
CLANDESTINE DRUG WARS: In a modern version of the opium wars of 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860, China is flooding the US with deadly drugs like fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin as reported by the US government. During the opium wars the British sourced opium from India. Now Chinese proxies in Myanmar are smuggling heroin, opium, and Methamphetamine via Northeastern states into India while its other proxy is using drones and boats to dump drugs across the Punjab and Gujrat borders. On 26th April this year, a Pakistani ship with 86 kilograms of drugs, including heroin worth 71 million dollars was seized off the Gujarat coast.
ONE CHINA EMPIRE: The CCP under Xi is using the unfair trade practices and “divide and rule” tactics used to build the British Empire to create a One China financial, land, sea, undersea, space, and cyberspace empire at our and others’ cost by gaming World Trade Organisation (WTO) and through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Indian dependence on Chinese imports and technologies and its negative trade balance need urgent resolution. Clandestine Chinese bio and chemical warfare research with Pakistan and nuclear and missile technology proliferation to it are a threat to our health and wealth just as its “One China” policy claiming our lands, threatens our national integrity.
Dr P.S. Venkatesh Rao is Consultant Endocrine, Breast & Laparoscopic Surgeon, Bengaluru.