Trump aides flirt with China: Since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, conspiracy stories are being heard about it on the internet.
One of these fraudulent claims was that the Coronavirus was part of China’s ‘secret biological weapons program‘. An unproven claim was also made that a team of detectives from Canada and China had spread the Coronavirus in Wuhan.
The claim of the Coronavirus being prepared in the lab went beyond Facebook and Twitter and reached prime time on Russia’s state television channel.
It has been months since the epidemic, but despite this, these stories of intrigue are not taking the name of its end. Rather now government officials, senior politicians, and media outlets in the USA and China are promoting new and unconfirmed claims.
Trump aides flirt with China: Conspiracy stories between USA and China
Epidemic and fake news
A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Shao Lijian, has said repeatedly and without any evidence that “the Kovid-19 epidemic may have started in the United States.”
On March 12, he made a tweet; it is possible that the US Army has brought the Coronavirus to Wuhan. A day later, Shao Lijian tweeted an article from the website ‘Global Research’.
The headline of this article was, “Coronavirus started in America; more evidence was found.” He also appealed to people to read and share this article. Later that article was deleted.
Chinese newspaper ‘Global Times’ also added tone to Shao Lijian. The newspaper, stressing that Shao Lijian had claimed this with ‘personal status’, wrote, “He said what the Chinese people are suspecting.”
Image of Lijian
Many Chinese embassies and social media users spread across the world also played a role in spreading Lijian’s claim. Kerry Allen, a China affairs expert on the BBC Monitoring team, says, “Lijian’s image has been that of an outspoken figure, especially on social media.
He has a different take on ‘Mainland China’ (the rest of China except Hong Kong and Macau) The image has been good. It is not necessary that they always say something that matches the view of leadership. “
The think tank ‘Center for Research on Globalization was established in Canada in 2001. ‘Global Research’ is the website of this think tank.
According to the fact-checking US website ‘Politifact’, ‘Global Research’ has a lot of intriguing stories on issues like September XI, Vaccine, and Global Warming, which are fascinating to listen to.
Larry Romanoff claims
The article tweeted by Shao Lijian was from Larry Romanoff. Larry is one of the regular writers for ‘Global Research‘. Larry Romanoff repeated the conclusion of an earlier article in that article that the virus has not originated in China.
But both the research that took place in China and the ‘Science‘ magazine they are referring to, are not saying that China is the place from where this transition started, rather they are saying that Wuhan’s cattle market, in particular, Can not be called the place of origin of the new Coronavirus.
Foundation of fake news
Larry Romanoff has also claimed that “scientists in Japan and Taiwan have discovered that the novel Coronavirus may have originated in the United States”.
Larry Romanoff must have concluded this in his article on the basis of reports on some channels in Japan and Taiwan. In fact, a similar report came out on a Japanese television channel in February and was claimed by a professor of pharmacology on a Taiwanese channel.
Indeed, the Taiwanese professor is a politician and considered pro-China, while Larry Romanoff considers him a top-level virologist.
Another bad news
Larry Romanoff also claimed that the Coronavirus would have been prepared at the US Army’s ‘German Laboratory’ at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
He further wrote to prove his point, “It is not surprising that the lab was completely closed last year due to lack of any safety criteria to prevent leakage of germs.”
When Larry Romanoff was writing all this, there was news in the New York Times that the ‘German Laboratory‘ has not been closed, but only his research work has been stopped.
The laboratory spokesperson said that there is no dangerous leakage of any material outside the laboratory.
Special affinity with china
Larry Romanoff calls himself a retired management consultant and businessman.
He also states that he is also a visiting professor at Fudan University in Shanghai and has also presented case studies on international affairs for senior classes of executive MBA.
According to Wall Street General, officials associated with Fudan University’s MBA programs had no information about Larry Romanoff.
Is Larry Romanoff associated with Fudan University as a visiting professor?
Fudan University did not respond to this question from BBC News.
Criticism for America
Criticism for the US and a sense of support for China can be read in most articles by Larry Romanoff, who regularly writes for ‘Global Research’.
Even in one of his articles, he described the students’ protest at the Tianmen intersection of 1989 as “an attempt to revolutionize America.”
Many of his claims have been questioned. From a podcast station this month, he said, “Initially, the disease of Kovid-19 was targeting only Chinese people and people of other origin and races were not affected.”
BBC News contacted Larry Romanoff for his comment but received no response from him.
The matter reached WHO funding.
When people associated with the Chinese government and the media began to report that America is behind the coronavirus epidemic, then it also started to react in Washington.
When President Trump called the Coronavirus a Chinese virus, then Foreign Minister Mike Pompeo demanded China stop misleading information.
President Trump recently announced that he is going to stop American funding to the World Health Organization. He accused the WHO of being a prodigy in China.
In response, World Health Organization Director-General Tedross Adhanom Ghibrias said that this is not the right time for the UN agency to cut the fund.
The story of Corona’s exit from Wuhan’s lab
But a section of American politicians and political analysts also continued to make unconfirmed claims about the origin of the Coronavirus.
Tucker Carlson, the prime-time host at Fox News, mentioned a study that suggested that the Coronavirus was accidentally spread from a laboratory in Wuhan.
Republican Senators Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz also expressed similar possibilities.
In February, Bautao Xiao and Li Xiao, two researchers at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, released an initial draft of a research paper that was to be formally evaluated.
In his research, it was concluded that this virus must have come out from a lab in Wuhan.
‘Washington Post’ reports
Baltic Xiao later told the Wall Street Journal that he had withdrawn his study.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Xiao as saying, “Our guess about the possibility of the origin of the Coronavirus was based on reports published in newspapers and media. We had no direct evidence in its favor.”
The Washington Post published a report in April that mentioned two science diplomats from the US embassy visiting the Wuhan Institute of Virology several times.
According to the report, science diplomats warned the US that “there are no adequate security arrangements in the lab and dangerous research is being done on the coronavirus of bats.”
Jeremy Konindick, who led the US response team at the time of the Ebola pandemic, said about the accidental leak from the lab, “Science does not dismiss the virus being produced in the lab, but he also says that it is impossible.”
Subscribe to Email Updates :
Add Comment