BEWARE OF BAD SAMARITANS

China and Russia are sending medical aid to Italy and other coronavirus-stricken countries, but their motives aren’t so altruistic.

Humanitarian disasters ordinarily provide brief respites of global cooperation. Human lives take on a rare starring role, and sometimes even geopolitical adversaries assist one another. After devastating earthquakes hit Iran in 2003 and 2012, even the United States pitched in to help. But during the coronavirus pandemic, the two most energetic Samaritans—Russia and China—are using their ostensible assistance for geopolitical gains.

Following a recent phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, the Russian government sent Italy nine aircraft and more than 100 experts, along with medical supplies. Having initially received no help from fellow European Union member states, in desperation Italy—the fourth-largest contributor to the EU budget—had turned to Russia. (Germany, France, and Austria have since sent millions of face masks to Italy; the Czech Republic has sent a few thousand protective suits. Germany has flown several dozen Italian and French patients to German hospitals. Poland has sent twelve doctors.)

When the much-anticipated Russian delivery arrived, however, the Italians discovered that the vast majority of the supplies were useless for coronavirus treatment. It was like a plot out of Occupied, the hit Norwegian television series about a mysterious takeover of Norway.

“Of those Russian supplies, 80 percent were completely useless or of little use to Italy. In other words, the delivery was more like a pretext,” an Italian government official told the leading newspaper La Stampa. According to the official, the Russian delivery contained, for example, equipment for bacteriological disinfection and a field laboratory for chemical-biological sterilization—not the ventilators and personal protective equipment so desperately needed by the Italians.

The Kremlin’s aid is indeed rather unusual. The medical experts were dispatched by the Russian defense ministry, not the health ministry, La Stampa reported. What’s more, many are senior biological, chemical, and nuclear officers in the medical branch of the Russian armed forces—hardly the front-line medics ordinarily dispatched to help fight a humanitarian crisis.

As of this writing, the Russian officers are based in the Bergamo area of Italy. According to a letter by Russia’s ambassador published in La Stampa, the Russian experts will initially sanitize overcrowded assisted living facilities there. Bergamo, the Italian city worst hit by the coronavirus, is located less than two hours from Vicenza, the site of a major U.S. military base. The officers are traveling “along NATO roads,” a Russian TV anchor noted. In his letter, the ambassador—who confirmed the officers’ biological, chemical, and nuclear expertise—pointed out that the Russians are risking their lives. He’s right: The Russian experts could succumb to the coronavirus on the Bergamo front line. To date, COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has claimed the lives of 51 Italian doctors. The presence of Russian military personnel in a NATO country, however, especially near a U.S. air base, raises fears that the Russians will use their stay to gather intelligence.

What makes the mission even more mind-boggling is the fact that Italy is one of the top troop contributors to current NATO out-of-area operations and has 166 soldiers stationed in Latvia as part of NATO’s enhanced forward presence, an effort to deter Russia. Around the same time as the Russian officers arrived in Italy, NATO jets intercepted a Russian military aircraft near NATO airspace. Italy, a founding member of NATO, is thus combating its worst post-World War II crisis with the aid of NATO’s main adversary.

Italy, a founding member of NATO, is thus combating its worst post-World War II crisis with the aid of NATO’s main adversary. That raises further questions about the purpose of the Russians’ visit and whether it will influence Italian attitudes toward NATO. Referring to the Russian supplies, Conte has insisted it won’t: “It’s inconceivable that our geopolitical arrangement would be conditioned by this equipment,” he told the Italian Senate on March 26.

Meanwhile, China has dispatched medical supplies and a few medical staff, too. Chinese authorities made a big deal out a March 12 flight that carried—as announced by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio—31 tons of equipment, including 40 ventilators. Since the initial flight, the Chinese have sent a few more supplies, including 30 ventilators on March 25. But for Italy, where nearly 100,000 people have been infected with the coronavirus and more than 10,000 have been killed by it, that’s a drop in the bucket.

Were the Chinese true friends of Italy, they would have sent tens of thousands of ventilators. What’s more, the Chinese supplies weren’t exactly a charitable gift. While some came from the Chinese Red Cross, the Italians had to buy others. To add insult to injury, around the same time that the first flight arrived, Chinese state media outlets began circulating a rumor that the COVID-19 outbreak had actually originated in Italy.

China has sent supplies to other countries, too. The deliveries are, however, paltry for a government with massive manufacturing at its disposal and whose bungling of the initial outbreak led to the virus going global. A million face masks here, a few hundred thousand there, and a few doctors are not much for a country that accounted for 50 percent of global face mask production in 2019 and whose daily face mask production skyrocketed to an astounding 110 million in February. By contrast, Albania, a poor country with fewer than 3 million inhabitants, has sent the Italians 30 doctors and nurses.

For China, the amount of aid needed doesn’t seem to matter: Beijing is using the deliveries as a public relations opportunity.

China’s assistance is also distinctly modest compared with the assistance Germany (which has more than 60,000 coronavirus infections itself) and other European countries are belatedly providing their worst-hit neighbors. But for China, the amount of aid needed doesn’t seem to matter: Beijing is using the deliveries as a public relations opportunity.

With great fanfare, face masks have been dispatched to Spain, France, Serbia, and the EU in a very public show of Chinese soft power. On March 20, the Czech Republic received Beijing’s deliveries on a Chinese military plane, an event widely covered by regime-friendly media. One day later, Chinese state television CGTN posted a YouTube video showing the loading of a train that will carry further medical equipment there.

The story is fully overtaken from foreignpolicy.com, the original article can be found on the following link.