Propaganda and Lies: China’s Propaganda Machine Spread Zhao Lijian’s Accusations against the U.S.

On March 12, Zhao Lijian, Spokesman & Deputy Director General of the Information Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accused the United States of being the origin of the novel coronavirus, tweeting, “It might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent!”

Twitter account @LandofYelang tweeted on March 13, 2020:

“Facts have shown that this is definitely not Zhao Lijian’s personal behavior, but rather an (event) planned by an organization.”

It then showed a tweet response quoting a WeChat posting by the People’s Daily Party Construction Cloud account, with the title of “The United States Owes Us an Explanation.”

The tweet response was to a tweet from Global Times, a media under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) mouthpiece People’s Daily. The tweet said:

“As the US #COVID19 situation becomes increasingly obscure, the Chinese public shares the suspicion raised by Zhao Lijian @zlj517 that the US might be the source of the virus and that the US is subject to questioning and is obliged to explain to the world. https://globaltimes.cn/content/1182511.shtml…”

The account @LandofYelang again tweeted on March 16, 2020:

“This is a state action. According to incomplete statistics, Chinese ambassadors or embassies in South Africa, the Philippines, Pakistan, Botswana, Jordan, France, Iran, Chad, and Uganda have all forwarded Zhao Lijian’s tweet.”

He also provided screenshots of Chinas’ ambassadors retweeting Zhao’s tweet. These ambassadors include Lin Songtian, Ambassador to South Africa, Zhang Lizhong, Ambassador to Maldives, Zhao Yanbo, Ambassador to Botswana, and Chang Hua, Ambassador to Iran.

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