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US summons Chinese ambassador over ‘dangerous and ridiculous’ Coronavirus conspiracy theory against America
AFP via Hong Kong Free Press ^ | 03/16/2020 | by Shaun Tandon

Posted on 03/16/2020 7:35:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The United States on Friday summoned China’s ambassador after a senior official in Beijing tweeted the “ridiculous” suggestion that the US military started the COVID-19 pandemic, the State Department said.

David Stilwell, the top US diplomat for Asia, issued a “stern representation” to Ambassador Cui Tiankai a day after foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted the conspiracy theory.

“China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a global pandemic and not telling the world,” a State Department official said.

“Spreading conspiracy theories is dangerous and ridiculous. We wanted to put the government on notice we won’t tolerate it, for the good of the Chinese people and the world,” the official said.

Zhao, in tweets in both Mandarin and English that gained wide traction on Chinese social media, a day earlier suggested that “patient zero” in the global pandemic may have come from the United States — not the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan, where cases were first reported in late 2019.

“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation,” tweeted Zhao, who is known for his provocative statements on social media.

His comment came as President Donald Trump’s administration, which has faced increasing criticism over its own coronavirus response, has increasingly highlighted the illness’s foreign origins, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dubbing it the “Wuhan virus.”

Cui, in contrast to Zhao, is known for his diplomatic approach. A day before he was summoned, Cui tweeted that China hoped to work closely with the United States to fight COVID-19 for “a more prosperous shared future.”

Scientists widely believe that the pandemic started in a market in Wuhan that sold exotic animals for human consumption.

(Excerpt) Read more at hongkongfp.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; conspiracytheory; coronavirus; oldnews
THE TWEET FROM A CHINESE OFFICIAL THAT STARTED THE FIRESTORM:

Lijian Zhao 赵立坚
@zlj517
· Mar 12

Some #influenza deaths were actually infected with #COVID-19, Robert Redfield from US #CDC admitted at the House of Representatives. US reported 34 million cases of influenza and 20,000 deaths. Please tell us how many are related to COVID-19?
@CDCDirector

1 posted on 03/16/2020 7:35:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

the solution is to replace WHO director with a Taiwanese doctor. He is not afraid to call it Wuhan, China Pneumonia.


2 posted on 03/16/2020 7:39:09 AM PDT by VAFreedom (maybe i should take a nap before work)
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To: SeekAndFind

SEE HERE: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/inside-chinas-campaign-to-blame-the-us-for-the-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-03-15

The first signs of Chinese skepticism of the virus’s origin came from the face of its fight against the epidemic, the celebrated doctor Zhong Nanshan, who was instrumental in the 2003 handling of the SARS crisis and has been featured in numerous televised interviews during the COVID-19 outbreak. At a press conference on Feb. 27, Zhong stated that the virus “may not have originated in China.”

Days later, the clearest salvo in the conspiracy campaign came from China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, who tweeted: “CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!”

The seemingly coordinated effort to, at minimum, sow doubts about the virus’s origin, and, at its most extreme, to directly accuse the U.S. military of creating and spreading the pathogen, has come from Chinese medical leaders, ambassadors and Foreign Ministry spokespersons — not to mention the hundreds of thousands of comments on Chinese social media echoing the conspiracy theories.


3 posted on 03/16/2020 7:39:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

Nobody has killed more Chinese in all history than the Chinese communist party.


4 posted on 03/16/2020 7:40:00 AM PDT by CondorFlight
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To: VAFreedom

RE: the solution is to replace WHO director with a Taiwanese doctor.

Taiwan is OSTRACIZED from WHO because of China’s pressure.


5 posted on 03/16/2020 7:40:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

Stop eating live bats and other raw wildlife you backward disease vectors.


6 posted on 03/16/2020 7:40:20 AM PDT by headstamp 2 (There's a stairway to heaven, but there's also a highway to hell.)
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To: SeekAndFind

China probably developed COVID-19 as a delivery agent for another toxin such as the Spanish Influenza.
They probably have live samples of Spanish Influenza retrieved from victims’ bodies who were buried in permafrost.


7 posted on 03/16/2020 7:44:55 AM PDT by MrBambaLaMamba (All evil and bad things originate in China)
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To: SeekAndFind

IF the US had produced the virulent strain of COVID-19, how did they manage to sneak it into such a tightly controlled society as the People’s Republic of China?

I stand in awe of the crafty saboteurs who could pull off that immensely difficult feat. And then get away clean afterwards.


8 posted on 03/16/2020 7:45:44 AM PDT by alloysteel (Freedom is not a matter of life and death. It is much more serious than that..)
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To: SeekAndFind

As a retired doctor the thing in all this that impresses me is this first guy. He saw 4 patients that were sufficiently so new, so ill, he was alarmed. When he had seen FOUR.


9 posted on 03/16/2020 7:50:20 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: headstamp 2

Stop eating everything that crawls, flies, or walks.


10 posted on 03/16/2020 7:52:05 AM PDT by DownInFlames (Galsd)
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To: MrBambaLaMamba

Here’s the ChiCom’s official’s theory being propagated around their chat groups in China:

Hundreds of athletes from the US military were in Wuhan for the Military World Games in October 2019 where hundreds of countries participated.

The US, which is a sports power DID NOT WIN ANY Gold Medals. This means that many athletes sent there had sickness.

The sickness could have been an early version of Covid-19.

These American athletes visited the Wuhan Wet Market prior to coming home, which became the epicenter of the epidemic.

They use a video of Robert Redfield, the director for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addressing a US Congressional committee on March 11.

In the clip, Redfield said some influenza deaths in the US were later identified as cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Redfield didn’t say when those people had died or over what time period, but Zhao pointed to his remarks in support of a growing conspiracy theory that the coronavirus did not originate in Hubei province in central China. He did not offer any further evidence for the claim.


11 posted on 03/16/2020 8:02:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: wastoute

Here’s the ChiCom’s official’s theory being propagated around their chat groups in China:

Hundreds of athletes from the US military were in Wuhan for the Military World Games in October 2019 where hundreds of countries participated.

The US, which is a sports power DID NOT WIN ANY Gold Medals. This means that many athletes sent there had sickness.

The sickness could have been an early version of Covid-19.

These American athletes visited the Wuhan Wet Market prior to coming home, which became the epicenter of the epidemic.

They use a video of Robert Redfield, the director for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addressing a US Congressional committee on March 11.

In the clip, Redfield said some influenza deaths in the US were later identified as cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Redfield didn’t say when those people had died or over what time period, but Zhao pointed to his remarks in support of a growing conspiracy theory that the coronavirus did not originate in Hubei province in central China. He did not offer any further evidence for the claim.


12 posted on 03/16/2020 8:02:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: SeekAndFind

The ChiComs know that blaming Trump will garner support from the left and American media, without any proof or even a plausible theory.


13 posted on 03/16/2020 8:02:51 AM PDT by Spok
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