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Propaganda and Lies: The Truth about the Video “An American Spread Virus in Wuhan Subway”

To defuse its accountability, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tried to blame the United States for sending the coronavirus to China. One of its accusations was that U.S. soldiers brought it to China during the Military World Games in Wuhan in October 2019.

Since March 16, a video of an American spreading the virus on the Wuhan subway train during the Military World Games has widely spread on Weibo and WeChat, the two most popular Chinese social media platforms. In the video, a foreigner pulled out his face mask, licked his fingers, and then wiped his hands on the handles of the subway cart. The video displayed the Chinese subtitle “During the Military World Games, Americans were spreading the virus. Please watch it. The U.S. is so awful!” Many Chinese netizens criticized the United States out of anger after watching the video.

The rumor creator also said, “The U.S. delegation, after the Military World Games was over, went to visit shopping centers, supermarkets, and trains. What if they were to spread the virus?”

The video was originally posted by account “Souf” on Twitter on March 10. According to a report by a British media, the scene happened in Brussels. The Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company said, “This man was drunk and had been arrested by the police and the staff from our security department. The train cart was disinfected and taken out of service.”

The Chinese characters in the video were added by Weibo account Miaoxiangbuyi, whose holder was certified to be Xu Xibiao, working for the Kaili City government, Guizhou Province. Xu’s job was to monitor and exercise Internet control.

The website of Chinese Information at Phoenix published the news and then summarized the CCP’s method of creating the rumor as: starting with netizens’ “bold speculation” that U.S. biochemical soldiers set the virus in Wuhan, following with a media rumor of a “maybe” accusation, then an official rumor “it might be the U.S. soldiers who brought the virus to Wuhan,” and finally sealing the case with an official/private mixed rumor (a government staff member sent an individual posting) of the video, “U.S. soldiers deliberately spread the virus during the Military World Games.”

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Hot Topics | | March 23, 2020 | Social Stability

Leadership: The Wide Spread of a WeChat Posting Calling for Politburo Meeting to Remove Xi Jinping

A WeChat posting calling for an “Emergency Enlarged Meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Politburo” was spreading widely in China. The meeting is to “discuss whether Xi Jinping is suitable to continue to be the President of the country, the CCP’s General Secretary, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.”

The article listed many topics to discuss, which all challenge the current administration’s policies:

As China has recently made enemies with many countries, should it return to Deng Xiaoping’s policy of “maintaining a low profile”?
Is the CCP higher or is the law higher? Can the ruling party be above the Constitution?
Should private companies be the main economic force in China or the state-owned enterprises?
Should citizen’s rights be sacrificed for the government’s stability maintenance?
Can the private sector run media?
Should the judicial system be independent (from the CCP)?
Can citizens criticize the government?
Is there a need to let the public monitor the government?
Should the CCP and state power be separated?
Should officials report their assets?
Is it important to reunify Taiwan under China or to keep regional peace?
Is Hong Kong’s prosperity more important or the central government’s authority (over Hong Kong) more important?
Can Hong Kong have its own local elections?

The article suggested the formation a three-person group with Li Keqiang, Wang Yang, and Wang Qishan to organize the meeting.

Some media used the screenshot of a repost of the article by Chen Ping, the founder of Sun TV who lives in Hong Kong. Chen said that he just received the article and felt it rational and thus reposted it. He did not know who wrote it.

Chen also said that the article reflected many people’s thoughts. “Now eventually it needs a (solution to fix the current policy) and it cannot always be this way. It is not good for China if the current policies continue.”

Chen is a princeling. Media have also linked this article to another criticizing-Xi article by Ren Zhiqiang, another princeling (see Chinascope posting: Public Opinion: Ren Zhiqiang’s Article: “A Clown Who Stripped Naked and Insisted on Continuing to Be an Emperor”).

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Hot Topics | | March 23, 2020 | Social Stability

“World Leader”: Global Times Called Sweden “Irresponsible” for “Surrendering to the Coronavirus”

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been trying to portray itself as the world leader in directing the global battle against the novel coronavirus. Recently the Global Times, a media under the CCP’s mouthpiece People’s Daily, published an article that criticized Sweden for being irresponsible in controlling the virus.

The article said that, on March 12, Sweden decided not to test patients with mild symptoms or suspected patients for the coronavirus infection since it is impossible to stop the spread of the virus in Sweden anyway. Instead, the government will focus its limited resources on medical staff and hospitalized patients who have a higher risk or have a severe condition.

The Global Times’ article called Sweden, “the first European country that surrendered to the coronavirus. Its latest policy is highly irresponsible, whether to protect the health of the Swedish people or coordinate the global battle against the pandemic.”

“Sweden’s action is to be an ostrich (to bury its head in the sand as if nothing has happened).”

“Carrying out this decision will severely violate humanity’s principles. It is shocking to see it happen in a developed European country that advertises “democracy” and ‘human rights.’”

“The international community, especially the European Union should vigorously condemn Sweden’s surrendering to the virus.”

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Hot Topics | | March 23, 2020 | Social Stability

World against the CCP: Nigel Farage: Time to “Rethink the West’s Relationship with China”

Nigel Farage, the British politician and broadcaster, who has led the Brexit Party since 2019, published an opinion article on Newsweek titled, “The Virus is Yet Another Reason to Rethink the West’s Relationship With China.” The following are excerpts from his article.

I believe that attention should now turn to China. When President Trump has talked about the “Chinese virus” (others have called it the “Wuhan Virus”) he has been met with waves of criticism and accusations of racism. In the House of Commons, the shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry even said of Trump: “Now he’s calling it the foreign virus, blaming it on Europe for its spread and today blaming China.” I hate to break it to Ms Thornberry, but Trump is right. And it is time we all challenged China.

Isn’t it time we in the West had a grown-up conversation about China, beginning with the truth that several layers of the regime—from sanitary inspectors to secret police— are responsible for this nightmare? Isn’t this the moment when we need to remind ourselves that China is a deeply unpleasant communist dictatorship, a surveillance society that executes thousands of its own people every year? We all need to examine our attitude to the Beijing regime. For too long, no global leader dared to say a word against it, much less adopt a remotely conditional approach to engaging with the regime. The priorities of globalization have been deemed far too important for human rights to even be considered. This is plain wrong.

The Left screams and shouts about Trump and, indeed, about anybody it perceives as being on the Right. We are all smeared as racists, fascists and homophobes. These days many of us are classed as transphobic, too. But while the Left is happy to pummel us into submission on so many subjects, they barely say a word about China. What about the oppression of Chinese Muslims? What about Tibet? Perhaps Emily Thornberry would do better by attacking President Xi rather than Donald Trump.

Ironically, the Serbian leader Alexander Vucic has been complaining this week that the EU won’t help his country and praising his new best friend, President Xi, who has apparently offered to step into the breach. Similarly, Italy has been happy to receive a helping hand from China, in the form of medical supplies. It would be nice if these acts of assistance would be accompanied by at least some admission of responsibility for allowing the situation to escalate in the first place, but one can hardly blame the Serbs and especially the Italians for taking help where they can find it. Still, this global crisis is as good a time as any to set ourselves the goal of recalibrating our relationship with this murderous autocracy that has brought the world such misery.

The West’s supply chains have become too dependent on China. To see China now exploiting a crisis that they have caused to spread their influence further and deeper into Europe should send a chill down our spines. If nothing else, Boris Johnson must see that his decision to invite the Chinese firm Huawei to build Britain’s 5G network is the wrong one. I have pointed out before that many members of our big business class, of the civil service, and indeed of our political class are increasingly in the pay of China. They ought to take their noses out of the trough and have a think. Their financial wellbeing is not above the good of our nation. The political correctness which their business deals engender means we are not able to speak the truth openly about a crisis like this one. This is highly corrosive.

I have no ill-will against the Chinese people whatsoever; nor against Chinese doctors battling the pandemic in Wuhan, nor against Chinese scientists working shoulder to shoulder with their colleagues around the world to break the code of the disease. But the fact remains that China is an ideological state with its own long-term purpose in mind, and President Xi—now in a totally commanding position in Chinese society—is not our friend.

World Against the CCP: Italian Officials Said CCP Lied

To boost its image as a world leader in fighting the coronavirus, the Chinse Communist Party (CCP) claimed that it had sent donations of medical supplies to Italy and that the Italian people were grateful to China.

However, United Daily News, a Taiwan media, reported that this has resulted in a wave of criticism from Italian politicians and reporters.

Maurizio Gasparri, the former Minister of Transportation, said, “China has not given us anything as a gift. We paid for all those materials. China is the worst country on Earth. They used unfair competition methods to plunge other countries into an economic crisis. They are the country with the most severe plastic pollution and carbon emissions, the country that has not revealed the truth about the pneumonia epidemic in Wuhan, and also the country that deliberately delayed and provided false information under the leadership of the CCP. China is a cancer on the Earth. Europe needs to wake up from this situation and stop being fooled by China’s lies. China is not a resource but a danger to the Earth.”

Congresswoman Giorgia Meloni said, “They cannot cheat us. China is not the savior of our country.” “It’s the Chinese who brought the virus to Italy. Don’t treat China as a role model.”

Renowned reporter Guilia Pompili also wrote that the CCP’s recent attempt to promote “China’s style of epidemic control as a model” and its export of medical supplies are a part of its propaganda campaign. “Observing Chinese media, you can see its main theme is ‘Charity China.’”

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Hot Topics | | March 22, 2020 | Social Stability

Leadership: Ren Zhiqiang Disappeared

Ren Zhiqiang, a princeling and a real estate tycoon who is known for having the guts to challenge the regime, wrote a lengthy article to criticize Xi Jinping for his mistakes in handling the coronavirus at the beginning and for his later actions, with a focus on ensuring his own authority, calling Xi “A clown who stripped naked and insisted on continuing to be an emperor.” (see Chinascope posting: Public Opinion: Ren Zhiqiang’s Article: “A Clown Who Stripped Naked and Insisted on Continuing to Be an Emperor”)

His article was opposite of the main theme of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda machine. The communist regime is working to portray Mr. Xi as a hero who is leading the country to victory in a “people’s war” against the virus.

It has been reported that Ren has disappeared.

The CCP disciplined Ren before. In 2016, Ren came under scrutiny after writing on his microblog that China’s news media should serve the people, not the party, contradicting one of Mr. Xi’s high-profile pronouncements. The party moved quickly to censure him, saying he had “lost his party spirit.” But he continued to speak out on other topics, such as China’s strict policies to limit the population in big cities.

Ren was a close friend to Wang Qishan and could have been protected by Wang in 2016.

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Sources:
1. South China Morning Post, March 15, 2020
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3075256/chinese-tycoon-ren-zhiqiang-goes-missing-after-criticising
2. New York Times, March 14, 2020

Hot Topics | | March 22, 2020 | Social Stability

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