“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.” – Paul Farmer
“The first wealth is health.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
In various parts of this series, we’ve made reference to some of the key reasons international disengagement from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is critical, on a number of fronts. Now, in this first half of our final segment, we’ll begin to cover the final reason: as it turns out, our lives depend on it.
Human health relies on many factors. From birth to death, living in good health is contingent upon a combination of environment, nutrition, and our ability to protect ourselves from disease and exposure to toxins. While there are countless battles to be fought in the effort to improve human health around the world, these three factors are foundational. Without proper environmental, nutritional, and disease management approaches, we will be forced to live in the kind of world Thomas Hobbes envisioned: “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”
The PRC embraces such a world. China under Xi Jinping is a world power with little respect for the systems currently in place to protect our environment, ensure that our food is clean, and keep us from dying the grim death that comes from overburden of disease. The “system” the PRC so regularly lauds as inherent to an era of Chinese leadership is one of cutthroat competition for resources and power.
Unfortunately, the system that the Chinese Communist Party and PRC envision, and are actively creating, is today the largest threat globally to our three foundational aspects of human health.
Let’s dive in.
