Hot Topics – Page 26

Virus Origin: NIH Provided $3.7 Million to Wuhan Lab in 2015

#1: Fox News reported that, according to public documents compiled by the White Coat Waste Project, in 2015, the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) provided $7.1 million worth of U.S. government grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The grants were for the lab to participate in projects in collaboration with U.S. institutions. One grant for research on the bat coronaviruses was $3.7 million and another grant of $3.4 million was for injecting viruses into the brains of mice. It is not clear exactly how much U.S. funding went directly to the Wuhan Institute of Virology because it worked in collaboration with other institutions on the projects funded by the American grants.

Fox News also mentioned that the Washington Post reported earlier this week that State Department officials had expressed grave concerns in recent years about the safety of the Chinese lab. A January 2018 State Department cable that the Washington Post obtained reads, “During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to operate this high-containment laboratory safely.” (Fox News)

#2. At the White House briefing on April 17, when asked about the NIH grant to the Wuhan lab, President Trump said that he has instructed to stop the funding if it has not been given out. “The Obama administration gave them a grant of $3.7 million and we have instructed that if any grants are going to that area, we are looking at it literally about an hour ago and also early in the morning. We will end that grant very quickly, but it was granted quite a while ago.” (Washington Examiner)

Leadership: Xi Warned to Prepare for Changes in the External Environment

On April 8, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee held a meeting on the coronavirus pandemic situation and the economic situation both in China and outside of China. Xi Jinping gave a speech stating, “Everyone must adhere to bottom-line thinking (thinking about the worst scenario) and have the mental and work preparation to deal with changes in the external environment for a long period of time. The coronavirus prevention and control work against importing the virus from abroad and reinfection internally must not be relaxed.”

Xi’s statement of preparing to “deal with changes in the external environment for a long period of time” caused the media to have a number of discussions. Chinese media focused on the virus containment and on importing the virus from abroad. (Qiushi, #1)

Media outside of the CCP’s control said that the CCP’s worries about external changes, including the international community suing it for the virus pandemic and the external impact on its economy.

Radio Free Asia (#2) commented that it is very rare for Xi to warn about “changes in the external environment.” Even during the toughest time during the U.S.-China trade war, Xi and other CCP officials did not make such a statement. The article quoted Zhang Lifan, an independent historian, who stated that China is worried about international lawsuits against the CCP for coronavirus damage. “Many people said that 120 years ago, in 1900, eight countries sent a joint army to China (and forced the Qing Dynasty to pay a huge indemnity). This time it might be 80 countries that join forces to hold China accountable.”

One article from Radio France International (#3) agreed with the thought. “Xi was giving a warning. What he didn’t speak about directly is a very severe issue that, after the pandemic is over, other countries will hold the CCP accountable for the damages from the virus. Initially, this issue was not that urgent, but Beijing’s series of actions in attempt to cleanse itself from the liability have backfired and led to the international community’s great vigilance and condemnation.”

Radio France International (#4) said in another article that Xi’s warning could be linked to the economic crisis in China. On April 10, at a press conference on maintaining foreign trade, Ren Hongbin, the Assistant Minister of Commerce stated that China is willing to expand its cooperation with the U.S. and other trade partners. Ren said that China’s trading companies are facing severe situations, including reduced orders, increasing costs, a poor international logistics process, and the blocking of supply chains.

Diplomacy: France Called in China Ambassador Because of Chinese Embassy’s Remarks

Radio France International reported that France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called in China’s Ambassador Lv Shaye for publishing articles criticizing France and Western countries for slandering China.

The Foreign Minister said that he expressly disagrees with some of the recent remarks of the People’s Republic of China’s Ambassador to France. He said that some publicly expressed opinions are not in line with the good bilateral relations between France and China. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs said that some comments were related to the containment of the new coronavirus.

On April 12, China’s Embassy in France published an article, “Reverse the facts that had been reversed – the observations on the novel coronavirus epidemic by a Chinese diplomat in France.” The article praised China because it had implemented the most comprehensive, most complete, and most strict measures to contain the coronavirus. It also criticized “certain self-claimed objective media, experts, and politicians in the West who did not contribute ideas to contain the virus in their country or the world, but spent their time on slandering and attacking China.”

The article said, “We see that, in Western countries, politicians attack each other for their votes; (some country) proposed a ‘group immunization’ strategy to leave the public to resist the slaughter of the virus on their own; (some countries) grabbed other’s epidemic prevention materials; (some countries) bought epidemic prevention materials with public money and sold them to private companies for profit; (some countries) let the elderly in nursing homes sign the ‘Consent to Give up Emergency Rescue;’ nursing home staff members collectively fled from their duties without permission, causing many elderly to starve and to die; (one country) fired an aircraft carrier captain for requesting that infected sailors be permitted to land ashore for treatment… But we didn’t see any major Western media reports on them or provide in-depth investigations that reveal the truth. Where is the conscience of these fair and objective media and experts? Where are their professional ethics?”

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