China is spending millions of dollars to get favourable coverage over the Wuhan virus pandemic that has infected 108 countries across the world. It is no surprise that when Donald Trump dared to call spade a spade and addressed it as ‘Chinese virus’, the WHO and UNESCO quickly came to the rescue of China. While the Chinese government is desperately trying to pin the blame on the USA, the Trump administration has shot back as it repetitively addressed it as the ‘Wuhan’ and the ‘Chinese’ virus much to the disdain of the liberals.
The Trump administration has decided to push back against the Chinese propaganda which is evident from Trump’s twitter.
The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2020
Trump called it the “Chinese Virus.”
This was not a slip.
His intel staff has made clear that China is spreading propaganda that the US is to blame.
Trump just dropped the hammer that we will not sit back & let the lies go unanswered.
There is only one culprit here:
China. https://t.co/TXkDV3rTTg
— BDW (@BryanDeanWright) March 17, 2020
No sooner did Trump tweet about the Chinese virus, did the liberals and the WHO and UNESCO came to the Chinese Communist Party’s rescue.
Kind quick reminder: viruses have no nationality.
— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) March 17, 2020
When talking about #COVID19, certain words & language may have a negative meaning for people and fuel stigmatizing attitudes https://t.co/yShiCMfYF3 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/d54qL4LY2H
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 2, 2020
When talking about #COVID19, certain words & language may have a negative meaning for people and fuel stigmatizing attitudes https://t.co/yShiCMfYF3 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/d54qL4LY2H
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 2, 2020
While the WHO and UNESCO might be claiming moral high ground as they claim to stand against ‘stigmatizing’ attitudes by refusing to name the virus after its place of origin. On the contrary, it is a norm to name the virus after the place of origin.
As was the case with Ebola and Nipah, the viruses were named after the places of origin. Diseases such as the West Nile virus, Guinea worm and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Japanese Encephalitis and the Spanish Flu are all named after its place of origin or the areas most affected by the disease. The WHO broke this practice when it came to the Wuhan virus.
The liberal media is now claiming that the move to call it the Wuhan virus or the Chinese virus is nothing but racist and xenophobic. Funnily, before Trump addressed it as the Wuhan coronavirus, the media abundantly used the term ‘Wuhan virus’ to address the outbreak but now since Trump has used it, the term is now ‘racist and xenophobic’.
Liberal media pundits want you to think referring to the coronavirus as the "Wuhan" or "Chinese" virus is racist.
Here's just a few of the times the liberal media did just that. pic.twitter.com/ss3kV5smSP
— MRCTV (@mrctv) March 12, 2020
https://twitter.com/doradopescado/status/1238188936427474944?s=20
“His newest reference comes days after CDC Director Robert Redfield agreed at a House hearing that it was "absolutely wrong and inappropriate" to use labels like "Chinese coronavirus," as the virus had expanded beyond China to other parts of the world.” https://t.co/h69D7GpFOc
— Chenue Her (@ChenueHer) March 17, 2020
Words matter. Deliberate use of names for COVID-19 like Chinese virus or Chinese Coronavirus is racist and irresponsible—it only spreads stigma and fear, and increases the violent xenophobic attacks on the Asian American community. https://t.co/SVgs63swlP pic.twitter.com/eA8PsEZL07
— Advancing Justice – AAJC (@AAAJ_AAJC) March 17, 2020
Calling #COVID19 the “Chinese Virus” puts our AAPI community in danger. This racist rhetoric has no place in our country. https://t.co/W8ntM1RU8F
— Harley Rouda (@HarleyRouda) March 17, 2020
This is both unscientific and xenophobic to call it the “Chinese Virus” https://t.co/ZaNZlFD8ET
— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) March 17, 2020
Friends, let's please not refer to COVID19 as a "Chinese" or "Wuhan" virus. The term is xenophobic and hurtful. The CDC & WHO discourage naming viruses after geographic locations. We need to band together, not further divide. Here's guidance from @aaja.https://t.co/dPB8PrXDTY
— Katie Kim (@KatieKimNews) March 17, 2020
It is no coincidence that the American media collectively came to the rescue of China as Trump upped the ante against China. ThePrint reports that China is buying good press across the world as it attempts to wash its hands off the spread of the virus.
This comes at a time when in 2016, Xi Jinping had publicly claimed to “tell China’s story better” to the world. Chinese government mouthpieces are on war footing running biased reports which portray Jinping as a ‘hero’ who saved China.
ThePrint reports that since 2016, China’s foreign ministry has hosted around 100 foreign journalists from leading media houses in Asia and Africa for 10 months. The visiting journalists are meted out the red-carpet treatment. They have been ‘gifted’ apartments in plush residences of Beijing and the Jianguomen Diplomatic Compound, where the cost of a two-BHK apartment is around Rs 2.4 lakh.
In addition to this ‘gifts’, the journalists also receive a 5,000 Yuan monthly stipend along with bi-monthly tours to different Chinese provinces. At the end of the trip, the journalists are given degrees in international relations from a Chinese university.
During the peak of the Hong Kong’s struggle for independence from China, the country’s propaganda machinery spent $1 million to buy influence on foreign social media.
58万推特粉，124万。 pic.twitter.com/ZUclcipbgZ
— 曹山石 (@caolei1) August 20, 2019
It now becomes much more clear why US-based media house ‘The Atlantic’ is acting as the spokesperson of Xi Jinping as it blames Trump for attempting to ‘rebrand’ the coronavirus.
President Trump labeling the novel coronavirus a "foreign virus" isn't a new strategy: When it comes to the popular naming of infectious diseases, xenophobia has long played a prominent role. @bgzimmer writes. https://t.co/gq26St9Q0v
— The Atlantic (@TheAtlantic) March 13, 2020
Atlantic Staff Writer David Frum put out a distasteful tweet.
Wuhan virus?
Or Trump plague?
— David Frum (@davidfrum) March 9, 2020
Frum’s colleague Anne Applebaum resorted to spreading fake news that China is sending medical aid to Iran and Italy out of the goodness of their hearts despite the fact that the shipments were not donations, but exports purchased by those countries.
After successfully exporting the Wuhan virus to the world, the Chinese government has shamelessly decided to shift the goalposts. While all the evidence points to the epicentre of the outbreak, Wuhan, which where the virus is widely believed to have originated, the Chinese government has come out and denied that the origin of the virus is in China in a bid to shed responsibility. The Chinese government instead has decided to pin the blame on the USA.
The Chinese authorities instead of taking up responsibility are trying to pin the blame on the USA and wash their hands off the virus. From initially blaming the USA for overreacting on the virus to now claiming that the virus originated in the USA, the Chinese propaganda machinery has come a full circle.
The Chinese propaganda machinery is currently claiming that it was the US Military that brought the virus to Wuhan during the Wuhan Military games — a claim which is devoid of any proof.
https://twitter.com/esaagar/status/1238958721465757702?s=20
The shielding of China by liberal media is all part of China’s robust PR machinery spread worldwide. It has previously sprung into action amid the trade war and whenever BRI faced challenges abroad or the revelation of China’s debt diplomacy or its aggression in the South China Sea.
