The Wuhan virus pandemic might have come as a surprise to many, but on a closer look the pandemic was long coming due to China’s booming wet market industry. Another pandemic will be on the horizon unless the Chinese government severely cracks down on its billion dollar wet market industry. There has been palpable anger against China as the world scrambles to contain the Wuhan virus, China is visibly rattled as the terms ‘Chinese virus’ and ‘Wuhan virus’ catch up and have sought India’s help to not label the virus.
Chinese Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong took to Twitter to claim that its not acceptable to label the virus and stigmatise China as he hoped that India would oppose such a mindset.
Wang Yi said it’s not acceptable and detrimental to international cooperation to label the virus and stigmatise China, hope India oppose such narrow mindset. Dr. Jaishankar agreed not to label the virus and the international community should send strong signal of solidarity.
— Embassy of The People's Republic of China in India (@China_Amb_India) March 24, 2020
Weidong’s tweet is a sign of how China is rattled as the world is starting to address the virus as ‘Chinese virus’ and the ‘Wuhan virus’. The Chinese government unleashed a full-blown propaganda to pin the blame of the virus on the USA but it found no takers. It colluded with the WHO to initially downplay the virus and blind the world and also stopped the organisation from naming the virus after its origin which is the norm. China has now deployed the WHO to attack Trump and anyone who calls it the Chinese virus but the world was quickly able to see through WHO’s pandering to Chinese propaganda and that too failed to find any takers. The country’s last throw of dice was to use prestigious international media outlets like the New York Times, Washington Post, Time Magazine and Atlantic to spread their propaganda with the New York Times even arguing that China essentially bought the West time against the virus.
However, the public was easily able to see though the Chinese propaganda as the country’s expensive PR exercise fell flat both internally and externally. Despite the best attempts of the western media to hide China’s wrongdoings, ‘#China lied, people died’ continues to trend on Twitter. According to a poll conducted by ABC/Ipsos, a whopping 55 percent of Americans support their President’s handling of the pandemic which includes Trump’s aggressive efforts to push back against the Chinese propaganda and call it the ‘Chinese virus’.
Moreover, #Chinesevirus has been trending on Twitter and people have been venting out their anger against the Chinese dispensation.
You have blood on your hands. For backing a lie #Chinesevirus https://t.co/0OSA7UhXdZ
— deepshikhas दीपशिखा (@deepshikhasET) March 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/Iyervval/status/1242726284431519745?s=20
Thank you. We need as many freedom loving people to sign this #ChineseVirus reparations petitions as possible worldwide. Please RT. I just signed it. https://t.co/8bly5h8fJd https://t.co/eTorjycodV pic.twitter.com/pCsZXtTyeL
— Solomon Yue (@SolomonYue) March 24, 2020
The recent developments have deeply shook the Chinese dispensation and have reached out to India as it is aware that anger against China is rising up in India. The replies to Weidong’s tweet are a testament to this fact. There have been calls for boycott against Chinese goods as India undergoes a lockdown of 21 days.
China realises that Trump will push America’s allies to use ‘Chinese virus’ instead of the ‘coronavirus’. Hence, a concerned China has reached out to India to prevent that. The world took note of Prime Minister Modi’s influence and connect with Indians as billions of Indians voluntarily locked themselves down during the Janata Curfew.
Until now, India has been handling the pandemic remarkably well and the Chinese government knows that if India officially decides to address it as the Chinese virus, the Xi Jinping government will have nowhere to hide.
