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WHO: WHO Director-General Tedros Is the Leader of a Leftist Party Which, in the1990s, the U.S. Listed as a Terrorist Organization

A Hong Kong media, CUP Magazine, reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros is the leader of a leftist party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), in Ethiopia, which in the 1990s the U.S. government identified as a terrorist group.

TPLF was established as a guerrilla group which, in 1975, had its base in Tigray, Ethiopia. Over time, it formed an Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front with other groups and it took power in the nation in 1991. However, since Tigrayans were only 6 percent of the total population in Ethiopia, TPLF ruled by terror and arrested and killed many people with different political views. It also took over the land from the Oromo people (about 34 percent of Ethiopia’s population). In 2005, Human Rights Watch criticized TPLF for several crimes against human rights. In the 1990s, the U.S. listed TPLF as a terrorist organization. This can still be seen in the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Maryland.

Tedros grew up in Tigray. After he obtained a PhD degree from the U.K. in 2001, he became the Director of Tigray’s Health Bureau. Then in 2005, he became the Minister of Health. In 2013, the Africa Report, a French media, mentioned that Tedros could become the next leader of the TPLF. When Tedros was elected as the Director-General of WHO, he still held a Politburo member position in the TPLF.

In 2018, local media Kichuu News criticized Tedros for ignoring the lives of millions of Oromos who the government was persecuting, accusing him of being unworthy of the position of Director General. The U.S. Fox News quoted a local Ethiopian reporter as saying that Tedros was one of the three most powerful leaders of the TPLF and thus he must be responsible for the government’s murder, torture, excessive arrests, and land grabbing.

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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)

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1. Source: Fox News, April 16, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/u-s-canada-have-funded-chinese-lab

2. Source: Twitter, Washington Examiner account on April 17, 2020
https://twitter.com/search?q=who%20was%20president%20then%3F&src=typed_query

Virus Origin: Fox News: Wuhan Lab Leaked the Virus

Fox News reported that it has obtained information from multiple sources that the COVID-19 outbreak had likely originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab.

The sources told Fox that they think the Chinese lab studied and experimented with the virus in an attempt to demonstrate that its virus research capabilities are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States. However, the virus was transmitted to a human from a bat. Then the “patient zero” (the first human who was infected with the virus), who worked at the lab, passed it to other people in Wuhan. (Fox News, #1)

Secretary of State Pompeo expressed that he wants to find out the truth about Wuhan. In an interview with Fox host Martha MacCallum, Pompeo said, “(O)ne of the best ways they [China] could find to cooperate would be to let the world in and to let the world’s scientists know exactly how this came to be; exactly how this virus began to spread.” (Fox News, #2)

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1. Source: Fox News, April 16, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/coronavirus-wuhan-lab-china-compete-us-sources

2. Source: Fox News, April 16, 2020
https://www.foxnews.com/media/pompeo-rips-china-come-clean-accountable

WHO: G7 Countries Seek a Review and Reform of the WHO

Amidst many criticisms over the World Health Organization (WHO) for taking a pro-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) position in releasing information about the novel coronavirus and leading the world’s virus containment efforts, the G7 group of industrialized nations called for a review and reform process at the WHO and agreed to ensure a coordinated global approach to the coronavirus pandemic.

The White House stated that, on April 16, the leaders from the G7 group held a meeting and that, “The leaders recognized that the G7 nations annually contribute more than a billion dollars to the WHO, and much of the conversation centered on the lack of transparency and chronic mismanagement of the pandemic by the WHO. The leaders called for a thorough review and reform process.”

President Trump announced earlier this week that the United States would suspend its funding to the WHO while it conducted a review of its handling of the pandemic.

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Source: Reuters, April 16, 2020
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-g7/g7-seeks-who-review-and-reform-commits-to-coordinated-virus-response-white-house-idUSKBN21Y2Y2

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.

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Medical Suppies: China Imposed Restrictions to Stop the Export of Medical Supplies

The Wall Street Journal reported that, according to a U.S. State Department memo and information from businesses, China has imposed export restrictions to stop the export of medical supplies.

China implemented new export restrictions in April, requiring that its National Medical Products Administration certify its goods as a stamp of quality control. It has requested that some products, such as masks, be checked multiple times.

U.S. companies 3M, Cellex, Inc., Emory Healthcare, General Electric, Owens & Minor, Inc. and PerkinElmer, Inc. have been impacted by China’s export controls. Some companies have been able to get products shipped following negotiations with the Chinese government, while others remain in limbo.

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Source: Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2020
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-export-restrictions-strand-medical-goods-u-s-needs-to-fight-coronavirus-state-department-says-11587031203

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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Death Count: China Revised Wuhan Death Count

On April 17, the Wuhan Municipal Novel Coronavirus Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center issued a notice to revise the infection count and death count in Wuhan City, Hubei Province.

#1: The report said that, according to a thorough check, by April 16, the cumulative infection count in Wuhan was 50,333, with an adjustment of 325 more cases; the cumulative death count was 3,869, with an adjustment of 1,290 additions. The report said the data gap was caused by people dying at home or by medical facilities’ inability to report data promptly. (China’s official government website)

#2: In his tweet, President Trump expressed doubt about the revised numbers because it is still too small compared to the numbers in the U.S.: “China has just announced a doubling in the number of their deaths from the Invisible Enemy. It is far higher than that and far higher than the U.S., not even close!”

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