At an interview with the Larry O’Connor Show on April 23, Secretary of State Pompeo said that China may have known about the coronavirus “maybe as early as November, but certainly by mid-December.”

QUESTION: It’s been well documented that the State Department very early on, the first week of January, started putting out alerts, precautions about this mysterious virus in this Wuhan region of China. How soon were there official requests to the Government of China for information about this virus or perhaps a sample of the virus so that we could do research?

And a secondary question to that: Are those requests made directly to the Chinese Government or through the World Health Organization?

SECRETARY POMPEO: Those are great requests. Let me try and – really, three questions. They’re all important.

First, as soon as we came to have a concern about this, you’ll recall that the first cases of this were known by the Chinese Government in – maybe as early as November, but certainly by mid-December, and they were slow to identify this for anyone in the world, including the World Health Organization.

Once the United States came to understand what was potentially taking place there, we immediately turned both to the World Health Organization and to the Chinese Government directly, not just through the State Department but through our health and technical experts as well, and asked for access, for understanding, for transparency.

Frankly, Larry, we are still trying to get an actual sample of the virus. They have given us the breakdown of it.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Hiding Information: Inner Mongolia Health Commission Trained People in January
• Hiding Information: Document Showed the CCP Hid Info for the Critical Six Days in Virus Containment
• Hiding Information: Wuhan Central Hospital Did Not Allow Staffs to Talk About Coronavirus
• Hiding Information: Wuhan Newspaper Said Doctor Reported Infection Cases in December and Authorities Took Actions Immediately
• Hiding Information: Expert Group Members Suggest Hubei Officials Hiding Information

Source: State Department website, April 23, 2020
https://www.state.gov/secretary-michael-r-pompeo-with-larry-oconnor-of-the-larry-oconnor-show/

As the novel coronavirus pandemic spread out globally, more and more people around the world have filed lawsuits against China for concealing the coronavirus information and causing the worldwide pandemic that has claimed many lives and hurt the economy badly.

#1: United States:

On April 21, the Missouri state government sued the Chinese government, saying that China’s response to the outbreak that originated in the city of Wuhan brought devastating economic losses to the state. It also accused the Chinese government of making the pandemic worse by “hoarding” masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE). It said that Missouri and its residents suffered possibly tens of billions of dollars in economic damages and seeks cash compensation.  (Reuters)

#2: Italy:

On April 21, the Oneurope non-profit organization launched a class action suit against China over COVID-19, claiming that China failed to react promptly according to obligations laid down by the World Health Organization (WHO). (Global Times)

#3: Italy:

The De La Poste hotel, a popular hotel in the Italian Alps, filed with a court in Belluno, which is in the same region, suing China’s Health Ministry for damages. The hotel sits in the town of Cortina d’Ampezzo, in the northern Italian region of Veneto, which was badly hit by the coronavirus. The hotel was heavily booked in March for the Ski World Cup Finals scheduled from March 18 to March 22, but then on March 12, the hotel was forced to close and stop all services when Italy went into lockdown. (The Mirror)

#4: India:

On April 14, Mumbai-based lawyer Ashish Sohani filed a petition in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands, suing Xi Jinping and four other officials for criminal negligence, willful suppression of information, and “treason against humanity.” It demands a total of $2.5 trillion compensation for the loss of lives and economic damage to the Indian government and the people of India. (Live Mint)

#5: Egypt:

Egyptian lawyer Mohamed Talaat filed a lawsuit via the Chinese embassy in Cairo, calling on China to pay $10 trillion due to the damages caused by the coronavirus in Egypt. Talaat based his claim on U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments that the virus originated in China and also media sources, which he did not name, that said China had produced the virus as a biological weapon. (Arab News)

#6: Israel:

On April 19, the Israeli Non-Government Organization (NG) Shurat HaDin announces that it plans to file a class action lawsuit against China in the coming days over its alleged negligence in treating and containing the coronavirus. The lawsuit was submitted in the US due to the fact that “most other countries are afraid of the implications of China’s economic might.” (Jerusalem Post)

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Justice: Chinese Citizen Sued Hubei Government
• Justice: India Sued China for 20 Trillion Dollar
• Justice: U.K. Researcher: G7 Countries Can Sue China for 4 Trillion Dollars
• Justice: U.S. Lawyers, Chinese Lawyers, and Turkey Student Asked China for Compensation
• Justice: U.S. Law Firm Sued Beijing over Its Role in Coronavirus Pandemic

1. Source: Reuters, April 21, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-lawsuit/in-a-first-missouri-sues-china-over-coronavirus-economic-losses-idUSKCN2232US

2. Source: Global Times, April 24, 2020
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1186609.shtml

3. Source: The Mirror, April 22, 2020
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/coronavirus-hit-hotel-italy-ski-21905905

4. Source: Live Mint, April 22, 2020
https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/why-this-mumbai-lawyer-sued-china-for-2-3tn-over-the-coronavirus-outbreak-11587527832779.html

5. Source: Arab News, April 7, 2020
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1654456/middle-east

6. Source: Jerusalem Post, April 19, 2020
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israel-us-law-firms-sue-china-for-trillions-of-dollars-over-coronavirus-625128

#1: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham told the Fox Television’s “Hannity” program that China should pay for its response to the coronavirus that enabled the contagion to spread around the world.

“If it were up to me, the whole world should send China a bill for the pandemic,” Graham said. “This is the third pandemic to come out of China and they come from these wet markets where they have bats and monkeys with the virus — carrying the virus — intermingled with the food supply. Yeah, I’d make China pay big time.” (Fox News)

#2: Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Myanmar wrote an article to criticize the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for hiding the Wuhan Pneumonia epidemic information which led to the worldwide outbreak.

In his article, Cardinal Maung Bo stated that China hid the information from the Chinese people, which the international community was strongly against and it should be held accountable for legal and financial liabilities. He quoted the report from the University of Southampton that China could have reduced its infection count by 66 percent, 86 percent, or 95 percent, if it had taken proper actions 1 week, 2 weeks, or 3 weeks earlier. (Radio France International) (See Chinascope posting: Accountability: China Could Have Reduced the Coronavirus Infection Count by Two Thirds If Taking Actions One Week Earlier)

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Accountability: The CCP’s Handling of the Coronavirus Followed Its Unrestricted Warfare Strategy
• Accountability: U.S. Intelligence Community Reported that CCP Concealed the Coronavirus Outbreak in China
• Accountability: China Could Have Reduced the Coronavirus Infection Count by Two Thirds If Taking Actions One Week Earlier
• Accountability: Chinese Professor Challenged the CCP with Ten Questions
• Accountability: US Law Makers and Netherlands Official Held the CCP Accountable

Continue reading →

Recently reporters from two Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled media attended a White House briefing and tried to hide their employer’s identity.

The first reporter was from Pheonix Television. (See Chinascope post: Propaganda and Lies: Background of Phoenix TV Whose Reporter Spoke for the CCP at the White House Press Release).

The second reporter is Zhang Jingyi. On April 8, 2020, Zhang Jingyi asked President Trump a question at the briefing. President Trump inquired where he was from. Zhang said “Taiwan.”

However, Zhang was not disclosing the full truth. He was from Taiwan, but he worked for Phoenix Television in 2010 and joined Dragon Television under the Shanghai Media Group which is one of the largest state-owned media and cultural conglomerates in China. In the context of President Trump’s question, he should have replied with the name of the company he is working for, which is the Shanghai Media Group.

The Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council spokesperson expressed that they will investigate Zhang’s case since his working for a state-owned media in China has violated the “Regulation on the Relationship between People from the Taiwan Region and the People from the Mainland,” which prohibits Taiwan citizens to taking positions in mainland China’s communist party, military, and political organizations.

Charlie Kirk (Founder and CEO of Turning Point USA) tweeted on April 17:

“How do agents of the CCP keep getting access to the White House Briefing Room? This “journalist” LIED to the president, said he was from Taiwan, but he is actually with Shanghai Media Group, a CCP propaganda arm RT if he should be arrested and deported!”

Trump responded to his tweet:

“Cut him off now!”

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Propaganda and Lies: FCC Commissioner Unmasked China Spokesperson’s Lie
• Propaganda and Lies: Background of Phoenix TV Whose Reporter Spoke for the CCP at White House Press Release
• Propaganda and Lies: CCP’s Overseas Propaganda Tactics
• Propaganda and Lies: CCP Hires People for Its Propaganda Campaign
• Propaganda and Lies: CCP Accused U.S. and Italy as Virus Origins

Continue reading →

On April 15, BILD, a German newspaper, published an article, ‘What China Already Owes Us,” presenting an “accounting” for the German “corona invoice,” (which the German government did not endorse and called “illusory”) with an amount of nearly €150 billion (US $163 billion) to China, including a €24 billion bill for lost tourism, €1 million per hour for Lufthansa and €50 billion for small businesses affected by the standstill.

The Chinese embassy responded with a furious letter which accused the paper of “stirring up nationalism” and prejudice towards China.

(reference #1)

Your report is not only missing crucial facts and exact timings but also any modicum of journalistic diligence and fairness.

Anyone who makes calculations like this is stirring up nationalism and prejudice as well as xenophobia and animosity towards China.

It does not live up to either the traditional friendship between our people or to a serious understanding of journalism.

Against this background, I ask myself where in your newsroom this dislike of our people and our country has come from?”

BILD editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt responded to the Chinese embassy’s accusation with an open letter addressed to Xi Jinping, titled “You are endangering the world”

(reference #2)

Dear President Xi Jinping

Your embassy in Berlin has addressed me in an open letter because we asked in our newspaper BILD whether China should pay for the massive economic damage the corona virus is inflicting worldwide.

Let me respond:

1. You rule by surveillance. You wouldn’t be president without surveillance. You monitor everything, every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country.

You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stalls where bat soup is sold. You are not only monitoring your people, you are endangering them – and with them, the rest of the world.

2. Surveillance is a denial of freedom. And a nation that is not free is not creative. A nation that is not innovative, does not invent anything. This is why you have made your country the world champion in intellectual property theft.

China enriches itself with the inventions of others, instead of inventing on its own. The reason China does not innovate and invent is that you don’t let the young people in your country think freely. China’s greatest export hit (that nobody wanted to have, but which has nevertheless gone around the world) is Corona.

3. You, your government and your scientists had to know long ago that Corona is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn’t respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan.

You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace.

4. The “Washington Post” reports that your laboratories in Wuhan have been researching corona viruses in bats, but without maintaining the highest safety standards. Why are your toxic laboratories not as secure as your prisons for political prisoners?

Would you like to explain this to the grieving widows, daughters, sons, husbands, parents of Corona victims all over the world?

5. In your country, your people are whispering about you. Your power is crumbling. You have created an inscrutable, non-transparent China. Before Corona, China was known as a surveillance state. Now, China is known as a surveillance state that infected the world with a deadly disease.

That is your political legacy.

Your embassy tells me that I am not living up to the “traditional friendship of our peoples.” I suppose you consider it a great “friendship” when you now generously send masks around the world. This isn’t friendship. I would call it imperialism hidden behind a smile – a Trojan Horse.

You plan to strengthen China through a plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later.

Yours sincerely

Julian Reichelt

Related postings on Chinascope:

• World Against the CCP: Sichuan Citizen and Politicians from U.S., U.K, Brazil, Australia, and Italy Criticized the CCP
• World Against CCP: Call The Coronavirus “CCP Virus”
• World Against CCP: Nigel Farage: Time to “Rethink the West’s Relationship with China”
• World Against CCP: Italian Officials Said CCP Lied

1. Source: Daily Mail, April 22, 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8244487/China-blasts-Bild-newspaper-demanding-coronavirus-reparations.html

2. Source: BILD, April 17, 2020
https://www.bild.de/politik/international/bild-international/bild-chief-editor-responds-to-the-chinese-president-70098436.bild.html

The Epoch Times reported that it has obtained provincial documents from China that supported the evidence the Associated Press (AP) reported earlier: The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knew of the severity of the coronavirus and the likelihood of person-to-person transmission on January 14, 2020; it passed down instructions to local health officials to take cautious measures immediately but did not disclose the information to the public until January 20, six days later. (See Chinascope post: Hiding Information: Document Showed the CCP Hid Information for Six Critical Days of Virus Containment).

The Epoch Times obtained eight documents from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (AR), which the government marked as secret, including the “Notice on Participating in the National Video Conference Training on the Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control Work,” and the “Urgent Notice on the (Inner Mongolia) AR Video Conference Training on the Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control Work.”

The documents showed that the government passed the coronavirus training from the central government down to local healthcare practitioners in teleconferences, but informed participants that the information in the teleconferences were “not allowed to be released to public.”

On January 15, the China’s National Health Commission held a confidential national teleconference with provincial health officials on coronavirus treatment. (AP reported the date as January 14, 2020).

On January 17, the Inner Mongolia Health Commission held an AR-level teleconference with the healthcare officials from the AR’s cities and Leagues (an administrative region under the Inner Mongolia AR, similar to Prefectures in the other provinces of China), to provide training on infection case identification and monitoring, management of suspected infectors and people who have had close contact with infected patients, the epidemiological investigation plan, the pneumonia laboratory test plan, etc.

On January 20, the Xilingol League Health Commission held a League-level teleconference with its own healthcare officials, to provide the related training.

Related postings on Chinascope:

• Hiding Information: Document Showed the CCP Hid Info for the Critical Six Days in Virus Containment
• Hiding Information: Wuhan Central Hospital Did Not Allow Staffs to Talk About Coronavirus
• Hiding Information: Wuhan Newspaper Said Doctor Reported Infection Cases in December and Authorities Took Actions Immediately
• Hiding Information: Expert Group Members Suggest Hubei Officials Hiding Information
• Hiding Information: Shanghai Authorities Closed a P3 Lab for Publishing Coronavirus Genome

Continue reading →