Coronavirus or COVID-19 that originated from the Wuhan province of China has spread to more than 145 countries by now with the death toll crossing well over the 8,000 mark. In such a calamitous scenario Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America has minced no words in terming what is obvious. Trump has repeatedly termed Coronavirus as ‘Chinese Virus’ because of where it originated from. At a White House briefing on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that he was attaching “China” to the name of the virus to combat a disinformation campaign promoted by Beijing officials that the American military was the source of the outbreak. The Trump administration has rightly so decided to push back against the Chinese propaganda which is evident from Trump’s speeches and tweets.
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
President Trump, once again, displayed his ‘on-the-face’ attitude to the World when he shut up a reporter when she tried to corner him on “Chinese virus”. “It’s not racist at all,” Trump said when asked if he felt it promoted racism or xenophobia. Explaining his rationale further he said, “It comes from China, that’s why.”
Trump tells a reporter calling #coronavirus the “Chinese virus” is “not racist at all”. pic.twitter.com/TKIkFvm2Z1
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 19, 2020
It is a fact not hidden from anybody that the communist country of China did not reveal how hazardous the virus could be to the rest of the world when it was in its initial stages. The Xi Jinping regime hid the severity of the Chinese Virus for the better part of November and December when it had just started to spread around the Wuhan province.
The consequences have been catastrophic ever since. China might have culled the number of cases in its country but the whole world has been left in disarray. Italy, the European country worst hit by the Chinese Virus outside mainland China is all set to overtake China’s death toll by tomorrow unless there is some divine intervention. The city of Lombardi which is a hub of the Chinese populace was the epicenter of Chinese virus and since then it has spread to the entire country which has been in lockdown. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for the Italians. Some estimates say that it will take months to get the numbers down.
The Chinese government on its own has brought the whole world down on its knees. They lied to their citizens and they lied to the world through their mouthpiece WHO. From initially denying to sound out the alarm bells to breaking its practice of naming the virus after its origin to publishing a biased report helping China with its narrative, the WHO has done it all. As was the case with Ebola and Nipah, the viruses were named after the places of origin. The WHO broke this practice when it came to the Chinese Virus.
China has left no stone unturned in shirking the responsibility for the coronavirus. It is acting vindictively against anyone who dares to call it the China Virus or Wuhanvirus and has undertaken a widespread disinformation campaign as it strives to blame the USA for the Wuhan virus. The Chinese regime has announced that it would be expelling journalists from major news outlets like The New York times, The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal from the country when their press credentials expire. They will not be allowed to work in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macau.
And last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, shared the outrageous conspiracy theory that the United States was behind the virus. “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” he said on Twitter. “Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!”
2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 12, 2020
China might be trying to muscle its way through the situation but the fact of the matter remains clear as a day—they should own up their mistakes.
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. Trump is not letting this slide and calling out the Chinese whenever he gets a chance. When the dust settles on the pandemic that has engulfed the whole planet (which again, could take more than a year) all the nations should question China on how it allowed the situation to spiral dangerously out of control.