Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters on Monday February 10 that two foreign citizens died from the coronavirus.
During last week’s routine press briefings, Hua Chunying, foreign ministry spokeswoman, accused the United States of “unceasingly manufacturing and spreading panic” by pulling its nationals out of China and restricting travel while not providing “any substantial assistance to China.”
In making public her negative assessment of the US position and its decisions as “setting a very bad example,” the spokeswoman did not appear to attach any weight to favorable comments that US officials made previously about China’s containing the coronavirus. On the other hand, Chinese state-run media had taken these favorable comments from foreign leaders as serious evidence to convince the Chinese people that the government is doing a superb job.
Publicly airing such unfriendly views toward the Trump administration also undercut what Xi Jingping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, had previously boasted, namely that China and the US have successfully managed their differences. Xi made the observation in a letter to President Donald Trump, which Vice Premier Li He read out loud at the January 15 ceremony for the signing the phase one trade deal between the two countries.
Hua stated that, since January 3, 2020, China had provided 30 briefings on the novel coronavirus devleopments in China to US health officials .
There was an outcry over Chinese social media that the Chinese people were kept in the dark until January 20, 2002. Worse, January 3 turned out to be the day when China Central Television (CCTV), China’s state-run television station, broadcast nationally, how eight people in Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, were reprimanded because the police had stopped all public discussion of the coronavirus cases thathad started to appear. Dr Li Wenliang, who died on the night of February 6 was among the eight people that CCTV humiliated.
On the other hand, some Chinese noted that the US could very well have been misled in those 30 briefings that Hua mentioned, just as the Chinese people were.
1. Excerpt in Chinese:
耿爽：截至2月10日8时，共有27名在华外国人确诊患新型冠状病毒肺炎，其中3人已治愈出院，2人死亡（一名美国公民、一名日本公民），22人正接受隔离治疗。
Source: Foreign Ministry website, February 10, 2020
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/t1742871.shtml
2. Excerpt in Chinese:
华春莹：近期有一些美国媒体和美国专家学者公开表示，在地缘政治上对美国构成最大威胁的不是别人，恰恰是美国自己。
Source: Foreign Ministry website, February 7, 2020
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/t1741922.shtml
3. Excerpt in Chinese:
华春莹：但据我所知，美国政府迄未向中方提供任何实质性帮助。相反，美国第一个从武汉撤出领馆人员，第一个提出要撤出部分使馆人员，第一个在世卫组织明确表示不建议甚至反对对华采取旅行和贸易限制措施后，反其道而行之，宣布采取全面禁止中国公民入境举措，制造和散播恐慌情绪。
中方本着公开、透明和负责任的态度同世界卫生组织和国际社会加强合作。自1月3日起，共30次向美方通报疫情信息和防控措施。两国疾控中心就疫情相关情况多次进行沟通。1月29日，中国卫健委通过官方渠道答复美方，欢迎美国加入世卫组织联合专家组。当天美方即回复表示感谢。1月31日，美方通过官方渠道告中国卫健委，美方已联系世卫组织总部，并向世卫组织提交了希望加入世卫组织联合专家组的美国专家名单。
Source: Foreign Ministry website, February 3, 2020
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/web/fyrbt_673021/jzhsl_673025/t1739521.shtml
4. Excerpt in Chinese:
华春莹的言论见诸报端后，立即引起国人的愤怒，纷纷在网上留言，炮轰中共祸国殃民：
“这篇发言真是不知从哪里开始吐槽了，1·3开始和美国通报疫情，还说美国最早撤侨造成恐慌？看来在疫情通报方面是真的错怪了武汉和湖北政府了。”
“敢情我这一个中国人在自己的国度还是个二等公民。”
“小粉红的脸被打飞了，不是说好中央很棒吗。”
“撒谎，圆谎。顾头顾不了腚。”
“你们亲自承认了，1月3号之前国家层面就知晓了疫情的消息。请善待你的人民。”
Source: CReaders.net, February 3, 2020
http://news.creaders.net/china/2020/02/03/2186325.html