“A lie repeated a thousand times will still remain a lie,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reacted to the publication on October 29 of the declassified full version of the report of the American intelligence services on the origin of the new type of coronavirus.
The document does not contain loud attacks “a la Trump” and refutes the information that the coronavirus was created in the laboratory as a biological weapon. However, it retains language that a leak from a biolaboratory in Wuhan, China, could have started the pandemic, as well as claims that “Beijing continues to obstruct the investigation, refuses to disclose information and blames other countries, including the United States.” Such accusations are extremely painful for the PRC, which hoped to close all these issues after the results of a joint investigation with WHO on the territory of the PRC published in March 2021. It was then concluded that a laboratory leak of the virus was “extremely unlikely.”
“This document, though long, is false, and is only good for growing Pinocchio’s nose,” the central Chinese media scathingly comment on the American report. Beijing is considering the publication of the full version of the report as another attempt to politicize the issue of the origin of the coronavirus. In this regard, the Chinese media remind: “Recently, more than 80 countries have clearly stated their position against the politicization of the process of tracing the source of the new type of coronavirus, supported the conclusions of a joint study by China and WHO. More than 300 political parties, organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries of the world issued joint statements to WHO against the politicization of infection tracing. “
Actually, in the current situation there is no “information bomb”: this is not the first or tenth “coronavirus attack” by the United States against China, the reaction of the PRC also turned out to be quite predictable. The further development of the situation is also quite predictable: the world will reiterate that the pandemic issue is highly politicized and will urge Washington not to point fingers at others, but to sort out its own problems. The fact that the international community thinks about US policy in this aspect was shown by the August global opinion poll conducted in the world’s largest social networks by the analytical center CGTN. Then 80 percent of respondents expressed confidence that the issue of the origin of the infection is highly politicized, 83.1 percent of those who voted in Chinese, English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian advised to conduct an investigation to find the source of COVID-19 in the United States.
Washington understands the global sentiment: American diplomats could not expect a sudden rise in anti-Chinese sentiment after the publication of the full version of the report, the main provisions of which were already known a couple of months ago. The question is: why then put on another public show? Observers believe there are two reasons. Firstly, it is necessary to “divert attention” somewhat from the increasingly heard demands to investigate a possible leak of coronavirus in the United States itself or from American biological laboratories around the world.
Secondly, the very date of publication of the full version of the report is indicative: the day before the start of the G20 summit in Rome. It is possible that Washington wanted to “spoil” the image of the PRC again on the eve of one of the most important global summits. Observers note that this practice in American diplomacy is not new, and will persist for a long time. Back in February 2020, Indian commentator Maitreya Bhakal shrewdly wrote: “The corona crisis will pass, but Sinophobia will remain. “.
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