How China Handled COVID-19- IEA book club event with Jasper Becker

The IEA Book Club was delighted to host Jasper Becker (British author, commentator, journalist, and expert on Asian Politics) for an upcoming webinar on his latest book, ‘Made in China: Wuhan, Covid, and the Quest for Biotech Supremacy’. This virtual event took place on Monday 21st June and was chaired by Dr Stephen Davies (IEA Head of Education). In Jasper’s latest book, he explores what we know, and still don’t know, about the origins of COVID-19, and how it was handled in China. We may never get all the answers, but much is already clear: China’s record as the origin of earlier pandemics, and its struggle to bring contagious diseases under control; its history as both a victim of biological warfare and a developer of deadly bioweapons. When Covid broke out, Wuhan was building science parks to realise Beijing’s ambitions in biotech research. Whoever achieves global leadership of the gene-editing industry stands to harvest great power and wealth. China has already challenged Western technological supremacy with 5G and in other industries. Yet this tiny, invisible virus has cruelly exposed a critical flaw in the Chinese political system: obsessive secrecy. The West wanted to trust the PRC, hoping that, as it prospered, it would become an open society. Made in China reveals how Beijing’s leaders have betrayed that trust. This event was exclusive to IEA Book Club members. To find out more about the Book Club please contact us directly at [email protected] Support the IEA on Patreon, where we give you the opportunity to directly help us continue producing stimulating and educational online content, whilst subscribing to exclusive IEA perks, benefits and priority access to our content https://patreon.com/iealondon   FOLLOW US: TWITTER - https://twitter.com/iealondon​​ INSTAGRAM - https://www.instagram.com/ieauk/​​ FACEBOOK - https://www.facebook.com/ieauk​​ WEBSITE - https://iea.org.uk/