Daily US Times: China has hit back at what the country calls “24 lies” by US politicians in the most sweeping and detailed rebuke yet of accusations over its handling of coronavirus outbreak.
Chinese Foreign Ministry posted an 11,000-word article on its website on Saturday, what gave a point-by-point rebuttal of the 24 “preposterous allegations and lies” that it said were fabricated by media outlets and US politicians to “shift the blame to China for their inadequate response to Covid-19.”
The article was also carried Sunday by China’s government-run news agency Xinhua, and shared by its official account on Twitter.
The lengthy refutation is the latest move by China to defend its handling of the outbreak, as the country comes under international scrutiny over its handling of the virus and faces mounting calls for an independent inquiry.
US officials, including President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have doubled down on blaming China in recent weeks for the spreading of the virus, accusing it of withholding important information — especially in the critical early stages of the outbreak — and questioning its death toll claiming China lies
Mr Pompeo have also claimed US government has enough evidence that the virus originated from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak was first reported last December, though he did not mention or provide any evidence.
Beijing has pushed back at the claims, accusing the Trump administration of deflecting blame for its own failure to contain the virus within the US and smearing China to bolster Trump’s reelection chances.
Beijing’s report said quioting Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States: “As Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people all the time and fool all the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
The article released over the weekend began with a prologue that invoked Abraham Lincoln.
It then gave a breakdown of each claim, and cited a variety of scientific studies, World Health Organization statements and media reports to support its counterarguments.
The article lashed out at claims tying the origin of the virus to China. “Being the first to report the virus does not mean that Wuhan is its origin. In fact, the origin is still not identified,” it said, echoing a point that has been repeatedly stressed by Chinese officials and government-controlled media.
But the article did not mention the admission by the Wuhan mayor that his government did not disclose information on the coronavirus “in a timely fashion”. The mayor said that during an interview with CCTV on January 27.
