Last Updated on April 22, 2020
China has told the US to stop blaming them for the coronavirus pandemic after President Donald Trump was at the center of a media field day a few weeks ago for dubbing the coronavirus, “the Chinese Virus.”
Beijing has also stressed that they too are a “victim” as the international community has called into question the world’s second largest economy’s handling of the outbreak at the crucial phase over disinformation campaigns and the suppression of whistleblowing.
According to South China Morning Post, Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang urged foreign governments to cooperate in unison to solve the global crisis, rather than apportioning blame or demanding reparations.
A UK think tank and a German newspaper independently calculated the economic damage of their respective countries due to shutdowns related to the global pandemic.
Speaking with reporters, Geng said: “The international community can overcome the virus only if it can stay united and cooperate to make concerted efforts.
“Attacking and discrediting other countries simply wastes time and cannot save lost lives.”
Geng also said that the real enemy is the virus–not China.
“China has been attacked by the virus and is also a victim of the virus. We are not the culprit, nor the accomplice of the virus,” Geng added.
As China faces a second wave of coronavirus infections, prompting a revision of Wuhan’s cumulative death toll, increasing by around 50%.
Meanwhile, another spokesperson emphasized that there never was a cover-up and that the Chinese government did not allow cover-ups.
Despite the Geng’s plea to attack the virus–rather than China–two opinion pieces from the Chinese government’s mouthpiece, The Global Times, labeled America “a primitive society” and “no match for China.”
A state-run Chinese opinion show airing in Arabic had a hostess tell her Middle-Eastern audience that she believed the coronavirus originated in America, adding to a mountainous pile of contradictory narratives and rhetoric disseminated by the Chinese government.
