DISINFO: Washington is using its anti-Russian methods against China to cover the role of US labs in the coronavirus outbreak
SUMMARY
Western media turned into an anti-Russian and anti-Chinese propaganda machine: the Pulitzer Prize 2020 was awarded to Reuters agency for its photographic coverage of the Hong Kong protests against the Chinese government and to The New York Times’ reports on the repression against Muslims in China. Currently Washington is starting to implement the same anti-Russian methods to impose its hegemony against China after realising the growing economic, financial and geopolitical potential of this country, and is accusing it not only of violating trade agreements and having an expansionist policy but of being responsible for the spread of Covid-19 throughout the world. With this, Trump is trying to cover the role of the US and its BSL-4 labs in spreading coronavirus around the planet.
RESPONSE
Conspiracy theory advancing several recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about secret labs, COVID-19 pandemic, Russophobia and the West. Contrary to the claim, the publication of stories on the Hong Kong protests and China’s repression of Muslims are not an anti-Chinese move but an exercise of press freedom. There is no evidence that the coronavirus (COVID-19) is man-made or created in laboratories. COVID-19 comes from a family of viruses that include the common cold and viruses such as SARS and MERS. Coronaviruses are known to circulate in mammals and birds, and scientists have already suggested that COVID-19 originally came from bats. One of the previous coronaviruses that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, spread from bats to civet cats to humans. A group of 27 prominent public health scientists have condemned rumours and conspiracy theories about the origin of the coronavirus outbreak: "We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin." The authors of The Lancet statement note that scientists from several countries who have studied SARS-CoV-2, “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife," just like many other viruses that have recently emerged in humans. "Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus," the statement says. See other examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about China, such as claims alleging that the Hong Kong protests were organised by the US to destabilise the country, that US military planners recommended an amplified psychological war against China, that coronavirus may be NATO's latest step in its containment strategy against Beijing, that some in the US want to prevent that China explains its success in fighting the pandemic, or that when the Covid-19 outbreak began in Wuhan, Washington celebrated it with champagne. This disinformation message appeared in the same article as the claim that "Alarmed about its resurgence after Crimea's reincorporation, the US turned against Russia".