US summons Chinese envoy over Beijing's coronavirus lies

[DavidsSling]

PHOTO: China and the US have clashed after Beijing said the US military could have started the coronavirus outbreak. (Reuters)

RELATED STORY: Chinese official suggests coronavirus started in United States
RELATED STORY: Donald Trump declares US national emergency over coronavirus
RELATED STORY: Mount Everest shut to foreign climbers over coronavirus fears
RELATED STORY: How the coronavirus started in China — and why that's actually a saving grace

The US State Department has summoned the Chinese ambassador to the United States to protest against Beijing's suggestion the US military might have brought the coronavirus to Wuhan, as tensions between the two global powers over the outbreak intensify.

Key points:

• Tensions escalated after China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the comments on Twitter
• The US says China is trying to deflect criticism over the part it played in "starting a global pandemic"
• US president Donald Trump has praised Beijing for its "data sharing"

David Stillwell, the top US diplomat for East Asia, delivered a very "stern representation" to China's ambassador Cui Tiankai on Friday, a State Department official said.

He added that Beijing's envoy was "very defensive."

The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said China was seeking to deflect criticism of its role in "starting a global pandemic and not telling the world."

Coronavirus questions answered

Breaking down the latest news and research to understand how the world is living through an epidemic, this is the ABC's Coronacast.


"Spreading conspiracy theories is dangerous and ridiculous. We wanted to put the government on notice we won't tolerate it for the good of the Chinese people and the world."

China's embassy did not respond to requests for comment.

Despite the signs of tension, US president Donald Trump praised Beijing on Friday for its "data sharing".

Asked by a reporter during a White House news conference about "odd narratives" being offered by some Chinese officials, Mr Trump appeared to brush off any concern, saying he had read one article on the subject.

He said he did not think it was representative of his discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping.


Lijian Zhao 赵立坚

✔@zlj5172/2 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!

In a national address this week, Mr Trump called the outbreak a "foreign virus" that started in China.

"They know where it came from, we all know where it came from," he said.

Tensions escalated after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian took to Twitter on Thursday.

"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!" Zhao tweeted in English.


Lijian Zhao 赵立坚

✔@zlj5171. Chinese spox: We hope certain US officials could focus on domestic response & international cooperation instead of trying to shift the blame to China by denigrating Chinese efforts to fight the epidemic. This is immoral & irresponsible, & will not help mitigate COVID-19 in US.


The episode is the latest in an increasing war of words between Washington and Beijing, whose already strained ties over issues including trade, intellectual property rights and press freedom have further been tested by the virus outbreak.

The coronavirus, which emerged in China in December, has spread around the world, pummelling financial markets, halting industry, bringing some flights to a standstill, closing schools and forcing the postponement of sports events and concerts.

Mr Zhao's comments came days after Robert O'Brien, the US national security adviser, said China had reacted slowly to the coronavirus, probably costing the world two months when it could have been preparing.

Wuhan was ground zero for the outbreak, which the World Health Organisation this week labelled a pandemic. It has infected more than 127,000 people worldwide, including nearly 81,000 in mainland China, and killed more than 5,000 people.

Beijing was criticised for initially attempting to censor some Chinese doctors who sounded an alarm over the virus. Since January, it has imposed draconian containment measures, effectively locking down Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province, home to 60 million people.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has complained that the US response had been hindered by what he called imperfect data from Beijing.

He and several other US politicians have angered Beijing by referring to the "Wuhan virus".

Reuters

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03...oy-over-beijing-coronavirus-comments/12056396

 

[IceCold]

Instead of summoning the Chinese envoy, US needs to answer these questions. Why being so defensive?

 

[cloud4000]

World Health Organization and many other scientists heaped praised on China's rapid response, transparency, sharing of data, and self sacrifice to buy the world time to fight the coronavirus.

The same organizations and experts roundly condemn the US regime for hiding all CDC data and holding secret meetings in spaces normally meant for planning biowarfare and chemical warfare.

The Chinese envoy, Zhao Lijian, is merely asking the question that's on everyone's minds.

What is the US regime hiding? Why are they hiding their data? What are the afraid of? If they are innocent then they have nothing to hide...so why are they hiding?

China complaining about US hiding something is quite rich given that the job of China’s state-owned media — and CPC —is to either hide things or to downplay them. Perhaps should focus on food safety rather than blaming others for a problem they created.

 

[大汉奸柳传志]

I thought that was his personal twitter account. Is the US govt trying to obstruct freedom of speech?

 

[Beidou2020]

WASP criminals are in panic because they thought this virus would destroy the Chinese economy but now it’s destroying the WASP economies. China’s superior governance has humiliated the WASP’s incompetent governance.

 

[Itachi]

Instead of summoning the Chinese envoy, US needs to answer these questions. Why being so defensive?

What questions??

There are no questions lol......it's pretty simple....the virus started in China, which got scolded by the international community for it's lax laboratory rules & corruption which helped spread the virus to China and the rest of the world...

It was also blamed along with WHO for not letting the Coronavirus be called a "pandemic"....which WHO recently just classified it as since now it's spread to the rest of the world.

All China did to turn the spotlight from itself was accuse the US of being the originator of the virus.....simple accusations....now the US has hit back because China doesn't want to be called ground zero for the virus...it'll hurt its "international image"....or whatever is left of it.

 

[Itachi]

We need to stay super vigilant. Something is off about the West's response. It's easy to blame incompetence, but I don't think it is incompetence. They are the world's most advanced at biological warfare. They have routinely practiced how to handle a biowarfare attack. I suspect this attack has biowarfare attack has multiple stages. The West's responded in a way that seems like they WANT the virus to infect its population.

As an example, look at 9/11. They kept telling us there was a bunch of "failures" that allowed Middle Easterners to hijack planes and fly them through airspace and into the World Trade Center. This is nonsense. It has since been proven that is a false flag coordinated by the US regime.

Similarly, their "faiures" to contain the coronavirus are not failures, but part of a broader plan.

Something is off about your flags too.

You're seen in every anti-US & pro-China thread....peddling the same core thoughts......making the same off topic posts.

 

[kankan326]

At first China did believe the Wuhan water market is the origin of the virus. Because many infected cases are related to it. Then more cases emerged who had never been to the market nor contacted with the market patients.

Conclusion. The water market is the place where massive human to human infection happened.

 

[Itachi]

What's wrong with you? Forget to take your meds, CIA shill? You're the one who is always tag teaming with the other child rapists (f22 raptor, hamawhatever antidote, davidsling, etc) at Eglin Air Force Base astroturfing the forums.

You think anyone is fooled by you? Everyone knows you're not Pakistani except the dimmest members.

It's normal to hate the US terrorist regime - it's the default world opinion.

http://nypost.com/2014/01/05/us-is-the-greatest-threat-to-world-peace-poll/

Of course you don't hate them since they pay your salary.

Reported for calling me a CIA shill (like the thousandth time) and calling other forum members "child rapists".

 

[dbc]

Something is off about your flags too.

You're seen in every anti-US & pro-China thread....peddling the same core thoughts......making the same off topic posts.

A butt hurt Iranian hoping to start a nuclear exchange between the US and China.

 

[beijingwalker]

Reported for calling me a CIA shill (like the thousandth time) and calling other forum members "child rapists".

lol.. I got called CCP shill more times in a day than you in a year. Mods don't care about those petty things.

 

[Itachi]

lol.. I got called CCP shill more times in a day than you in a year. Mods don't care about those petty things.

Did you report??

 

[KAL-EL]

lol.. I got called CCP shill more times in a day than you in a year. Mods don't care about those petty things.

Maybe not, but I’m sure some mods would certainly take issue with him labeling other members as child rapists.

Which is why he was neg rated

 

[dbc]

lol.. I got called CCP shill more times in a day than you in a year. Mods don't care about those petty things.

well he wants us to nuke each other - do you want push the big red button first and send a DongFeng over?

 

[beijingwalker]

well he wants us to nuke each other - do you want push the big red button first and send a DongFeng over?

I was just talking about people calling each other shills and trolls, I see that too often everyday.