President Trump and his administration Wednesday doubled down on blaming Chinese secrecy for the global spread of the coronavirus, claiming that Beijing has lied about helping the world solve the crisis and is conducting a “disinformation campaign” to blame others.
Trump today led the anti-China effort by tweeting about the “Chinese Virus,” which sparked a new round of attacks from left-leaning media that the description is racist, even though it did begin in Wuhan, China, and has been blamed on Chinese cat “feasts.”
He tweeted, “I always treated the Chinese Virus very seriously, and have done a very good job from the beginning, including my very early decision to close the ‘borders’ from China — against the wishes of almost all. Many lives were saved. The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful & false!”
Also at the White House, national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien has been a prime driver in keeping the pressure on China, repeatedly calling it the “Wuhan Virus,” a term that has won him condemnation in China.
Xinhua, China’s official news agency, accused O’Brien and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of spreading a “political virus” with continuing to blame China.
But officials said China and its surrogates have lied about the outbreak and hid the disaster so long that it spread around the world.
They plan to lean into China more this week, especially amid reports that China's recovery efforts have been successful and should be followed by the West. "They are waging a campaign of disinformation. You can't trust them," said a U.S. official.
And officials said that China has also lied about what they are doing to help. For example, over the weekend, Chinese billionaire and Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma tweeted pictures of face masks being loaded on jets for the United States.
“The first shipment of masks and coronavirus test kits to the US is taking off from Shanghai. All the best to our friends in America,” he said.
However, an official said, “The flight never happened.”
And with China now blaming the U.S. military for starting the crisis, officials are brushing away criticism to hit China anew with the “Chinese Virus” and “Wuhan Virus” slam.
“You’ve got to call it what it is — the Chinese Virus. That’s where it came from, and we’re all dealing with the consequences from the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign of disinformation on this global threat,” said a senior administration official.
Conservative analyst Jed Babbin, who co-writes Secrets’ Weekly White House Report Card, said that there is no reason to be delicate with the Chinese or to give in to critics. “The coronavirus is as Chinese as Peking duck. But don’t panic. You can’t catch ‘kung flu' from Chinese takeout,” he said.
O’Brien has made the clearest connection to Chinese secrecy for the pandemic.
Last week, at the
Heritage Foundation, he was blunt when he said:
“This virus did not originate in the United States. It originated in Wuhan, in Hubei province. It originated some time ago. Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up. There is lots of open source reporting from China, from Chinese nationals, that the doctors involved were either silenced or put into isolation, or that sort of thing, so that word of this virus could not get out. It probably cost the world community two months to respond.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/white-house-call-it-what-it-is-the-china-virus
