[buhdeh]

https://globalnews.ca/news/6858818/c...ment-shortage/

China used diplomatic channels, state-owned businesses and Chinese diaspora community associations that are thought to be increasingly under the influence of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s powerful United Front Work Department (UFWD).

And through clandestine United Front networks run out of Chinese consulates in cities from Vancouver to Toronto to New York to Melbourne to Tokyo, the Communist Party urged millions of “overseas Chinese” to bulk-buy N95 masks in order to ship “back batches of scarce supplies for the motherland.”

China imported 2.02 billion safety masks, according to Beijing’s March 2020 customs records.

In March, the masks sold to China in January and February were being sold back to Mexico at 20 to 30 times the price, according to [Mexico's former ambassador to Beijing, Jorge] Guajardo.

And the Washington Post and CNN reported in April that PPE is sometimes costing more than 1,000 percent the prices seen in early January.

“This pandemic got complicated because of China’s coverup at the start,” Guajardo said. “And now it is further complicated by China leaving the world naked with no supply of PPE.