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Propaganda and Lies: Chinese Bots Flooded Twitter to Spread That the U.S. Is the Origin of the Coronavirus

To defuse its accountability, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tried to blame the United States for sending the coronavirus to China. 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, stating, “It might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent!”

The National Pulse reported on March 16, that since then Chinese bots had flocked to Twitter to spread the accusation.

“In the past few days especially, brand new ‘bot’ – like accounts following zero people, and being followed back by no one, have flooded Twitter threads attacking the United States of America, President Trump, and many of those who believe the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should have to answer tough questions about the COVID-19 coronavirus.

“The accounts appear to be flocking to defend Chinese Communist Party state actors such as Lijian Zhao – China’s “Information Department” Deputy Director General, and Lin Songtian, China’s Ambassador to South Africa.

“Thousands of new accounts – many the same as those attacking the President and the United States – were created in March 2020 and have taken to ‘liking’ and ‘retweeting’ CCP propagandists such as Zhao and Songtian, including on stories such as: ‘COVID-19: Further Evidence that the Virus Originated in the US.’

“The accounts have not been suspended and/or limited by Twitter, and neither CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, nor the rest of the political or media establishments in the Western world have commented upon the surge in social media agitprop pushed by the CCP.

One can’t help but wonder if this would be the same if Russia were behind the disinformation campaign.”

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Source: The National Pulse, March 16, 2020

Chinese Bots Flood Twitter to Spread Anti-Trump Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories

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Propaganda and Lies: People’s Daily Commentary: “Must Resist the Poison of Stigmatization”

To defuse its accountability, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried to blame the United States for sending the coronavirus to China. The U.S. government responded strongly against its accusation. President Trump, some members of  Congress, and some U.S. government officials started to call the virus the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus” to remind people that Beijing was liable for the coronavirus disaster.

On March 20, People’s Daily published a commentary with the title “Must Resist the Poison of Stigmatization.” The article was published under the name Zhong Sheng (钟声), homophonic for “China’s Voice,” used for expressing the Chinese Communist Party’s official position.

The article said, “Some politicians in the United States have the wrong heart and deliberately linked the novel coronavirus to China. They arrogantly referred to the current epidemic as the ‘Wuhan Pneumonia’ and the ‘Chinese virus,’ and stigmatized China. Such extremely immoral and extremely irresponsible words and deeds not only do not help prevent and control the epidemic in their own country, but also seriously hinder the unity and cooperation of the world to fight the epidemic. China is strongly indignant about this, resolutely opposes it, and urges the U.S. to correct its mistakes immediately and stop the groundless blame against China.”

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Propaganda and Lies: Geng Shuang, a Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Said the U.S. “Stigmatizes” China

To defuse its accountability, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tried to blame the United States for sending the coronavirus to China. The U.S. government responded strongly against its accusation. President Trump, some congress members, and some U.S. government officials have since been calling the virus the “Chinese virus” or the “Wuhan virus” to remind people that Beijing was liable for the coronavirus disaster

At a press conference on March 17, Geng Shuang, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in answer to questions, made the following comments about the United States.

Q: U.S. President Trump called the novel coronavirus a “Chinese virus.” What is China’s comment?

A: “Recently, some U.S. politicians linked the novel coronavirus to China. This stigmatizes China. We are strongly indignant about it and firmly object to it. … We urge the United States to fix its mistakes immediately and stop the groundless blaming against China immediately.”

Q: On March 16, Peter Navarro, Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy at the White House said that the White House is preparing a Presidential executive order to move the medical supply chain back to the U.S. from China and to reduce the U.S. dependency on other countries. Do you have any comments?”

A: “The establishment and development of the global supply chain is the result of market rule companies’ choice. (People) should not use any excuse or approach to attempt to cut the global industry chain and supply chain manually, or even to promote ‘moving back’ and ‘decoupling.’ It is neither realistic nor sensible.”

Geng also stated that China has provided or is providing medical materials to a few dozen countries and regions, including Pakistan, Laos, Thailand, Iran, South Korea, Japan, Italy, and the Africa Union, that have an urgent need for them.

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Leadership: Beijing May Hold “Lianghui” (“The Two Conferences”) in Late April or Early May

The “Lianghui,” or the “Two Conferences,” is a common Mandarin Chinese abbreviation for the national or local People’s Congress and the national or local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. It’s a rubber stamp process to show that representatives of the people in the country or in a local region review and approve of the work of the central or local government and make decisions about the personnel in the committees of the People’s Congress and the People’s Political Consultative Conference.

The national level of the “Lianghui” was scheduled to be held in Beijing in early March, but due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, Beijing suspended it.

Lianhe Zaobao, a newspaper in Singapore, reported that, according to insider information, Beijing is temporarily planning to hold the two conferences at end of April or early May. It mentioned that Reuters reported that the date has not been yet been set but that the number of people attending might be reduced and people outside of Beijing attending the conference will go through quarantine.

Lianhe Zaobao commented that it may be a key indicator if the two conferences can take place in two months. It will mean that the China’s leaders are thinking that everything is getting back to normal.

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“World Leader”: China’s Novel Coronavirus Vaccine Is Ready for Human Testing

Global Times, a publication under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) mouthpiece People’s Daily, tweeted on March 17:

“#Breaking: Recombinant #COVID19 vaccine developed by the team led by top PLA epidemiologist Chen Wei was approved to launch clinical trials in#China on Monday”

Science Net reported on March 17, that Wang Junzhi, a member of the China Engineering Academy, said at a State Council press conference that China’s vaccine research team has started recruiting volunteers for testing.

“This is an institution which has made fast progress in the development of a vaccine, submitted a clinical trial application to the State Drug Administration and started reviewing the clinical trial plan and recruiting volunteers.” “We are among the leading tier of the countries in novel coronavirus vaccine R&D work and will not be slower than foreign countries.”

Wang said that China picked eight teams to focus on five technical areas when launching the vaccine development work. Most of the teams will complete a pre-trial study in April and gradually start clinical trials afterward. Some team(s) are even faster.

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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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Sources:

1. Twitter

2. Twitter

3. Twitter

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“World Leader”: Experts: Other Countries Cannot Adopt China’s Epidemic Control Model

The BBC published an article in which experts stated that they do not see China’s model to control and prevent coronavirus fit for other countries, because the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) actions violated human rights significantly and also had an economic and social impact.

Freddie Gomez, a famous Filipino medical program host and otolaryngologist, believes that China’s strict measures of forced-quarantine and complete lockdown are hard for other countries to accept. “Official’s sudden visits, neighbor’s monitoring each other, and monopolizing information all obviously violate human rights.”

Lawrence Gostin, global public health specialist at Georgetown University, said, “China has a special political system in which it can force its citizens to follow strict measures. However, this kind of state control and monitoring does not suit other countries.”

Professor Robert Dingwall, public health expert and professor at Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom, pointed out that, though the CCP has the capability and resources to force the lockdown of the city and forcibly quarantine individual confirmed patients, that will jeopardize the legitimacy of its rule. Also, locking down streets will have a direct impact on society. Hong Kong citizens stuck in Wuhan told the media in mid-February that the city did not have a sufficient supply of medicine and of food.

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Propaganda and Lies: Pompeo Called Yang Jiechi

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, stating, “It might be the US army that brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent!”

On March 16, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of the United States called Yang Jiechi, Director of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He asked that the CCP put a halt to spreading disinformation through its propaganda outlets claiming that the U.S. Army first spread the novel coronavirus in China.

According to a statement that the State Department issued, Secretary Pompeo “conveyed strong U.S. objections to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC’s) efforts to shift blame for COVID-19 to the United States.” “The secretary stressed that this is not the time to spread disinformation and outlandish rumors, but rather a time for all nations to come together to fight this common threat.”

Reuters reported that, according to China’s state-run television, Yang told Mr. Pompeo that any attempt to smear China for its efforts to counter the coronavirus “would not succeed.” The Chinese senior diplomat also threatened unspecified retaliation about what he said were U.S. politicians’ efforts to denigrate China’s efforts to fight the virus.

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Source: Washington Times, March 16, 2020
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/16/us-demands-china-halt-coronavirus-propaganda/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork

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