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Trump's slur against China earns global censure
China Daily ^ | March 21, 2020 | By ZHANG YUNBI in London and CHEN YINGQUN in Beijing

Posted on 03/21/2020 7:03:40 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

United States President Donald Trump's recent labeling of the novel coronavirus pneumonia pandemic as originating from a "Chinese virus" has triggered widespread backlash from the international community.

Officials and commentators worldwide used words like "racist" and "xenophobic" to describe the term and said it is part of Washington's attempt to shift blame to China for its delayed, inefficient response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Instead of terms such as "COVID-19" or "coronavirus", the US top leader used the term in both his Wednesday and Thursday news conferences at the White House as well as in some recent tweets, and he publicly rejected reporters' questions about whether the term was racist.

The World Health Organization gave the name COVID-19 to novel coronavirus pneumonia on Feb 11, when WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said it was both for scientific purposes and also to "avoid a number of different stigmatizing or other forms of confusing names".

US Democrats have slammed Trump and other Republicans for using "Chinese" or "Wuhan" when referring to the virus in public statements and social media posts.

Former US vice-president Joe Biden on Wednesday condemned Trump's comments and urged him to "take responsibility" for his actions.

"Stop the xenophobic fearmongering. Be honest. Take responsibility. Do your job," he wrote on Twitter.

Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton also tweeted on Wednesday that Trump was attempting to distract people from his administration's slow response to the pandemic.

"The president is turning to racist rhetoric to distract from his failures to take the coronavirus seriously early on, make tests widely available and adequately prepare the country for a period of crisis," she tweeted. "Don't fall for it. Don't let your friends and family fall for it."

The distinguished American economist Paul Krugman said in his New York Times column that the coronavirus outbreak should probably be referred to as the "Trump pandemic" as the US response to the virus has been "catastrophically slow and inadequate".

Racism and blaming other people have been the defining features Trump have used during his presidency, he added.

Josep Borrell, high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, said on Thursday that viruses don't have a nationality and don't care about borders.

"COVID-19 is not a Chinese virus, as the Spanish flu was not Spanish," he tweeted. "We all face a massive threat that requires global cooperation and all of us working hand in hand."

Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, said on Thursday: "COVID-19 is COVID-19." He said trying to link a nation to the illness "is disgraceful."

The term used by Trump is "the sort of language which leads to incitement and hatred toward people of Chinese origin", Khan said when answering questions from members of the London Assembly about the pandemic.

"We are a city which celebrates our diversity and we think it is a strength, not a weakness. It's really important that we do not fall into the trap of some to use this virus as an excuse to denigrate, demean and humiliate people," the mayor added.

Pascal Lamy, former director-general of the World Trade Organization, said that the COVID-19 crisis is testing first and foremost the resilience of national governance, as the capacity to fight the virus lies in the quality of health systems and in collective disciplines such as social distancing.

But there is also a second order international dimension in cooperation to provide medical equipment, liquidity for economies or signals for concerted action, Lamy said.

"In this respect, I very much agree with the WHO that 'my country first' or 'blame the foreigners' political proclamations are dangerously counterproductive, including when they target China," he said.

Canadian experts and officials also stressed that using the term that Trump did does not help bring the whole world together to respond to this common threat. Only through global collaboration can the war against the virus eventually be won.

Thomas Bernes, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said that the terms being used by Trump are "highly regrettable and inappropriate".

"This is a global threat that requires global cooperation to defeat the virus and respond to the global economic challenge," said Bernes. "Trump's go-it-alone approach can only fail, and his language can only exacerbate problems and make global cooperation more difficult."

Toronto Councilor Jim Karygiannis said it is time for the US president to acknowledge that the term is racist and apologize for using it.

"The president continually has demonstrated that he reacts before he thinks. In this case, he is using China as a scapegoat for his country not being ready to fight the COVID-19 threat," said Karygiannis.

Leading media have also criticized the use of the term.

Amanda Walker, US correspondent of Sky News, wrote on Thursday that Trump "has recently and very purposefully ramped up his reference to 'Chinese virus'".

She noted that "there has been another recent change in Mr Trump's tone" as Trump is now "taking this public health crisis seriously" and he "accepted it could cause a recession and its grip on America could last well into the summer, which is just a couple of months from November's election.

"If millions of Americans die, it will be on his watch," Walker wrote. She said using an insulting term "is a way of deflecting blame".

The New York Times said on Thursday that Trump is "ignoring a growing chorus of criticism that it is racist and anti-Chinese".


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: china; journalism; media; redchina; virus
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

We should stop calling China “China”.

Let’s start calling it “Paper Plates”.


61 posted on 03/21/2020 7:36:32 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer”)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I feel so badly the racist Chinese are offended!!
62 posted on 03/21/2020 7:38:46 AM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Gays can give blood but I can't)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
America First, bishes. PDJT has been calling out China for their dishonesty from the very beginning. He has been proved correct at every turn. Even if this Chinese propaganda was true, as an American, I couldn’t care less what the rest of the world thinks. People around the world should be asking their political class why the rest of the world comes first.
63 posted on 03/21/2020 7:39:26 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (The only difference between flash mob 'urban yutes' and U.S. politicians is the hoodies.)
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To: liberalh8ter

Democrats love their ill-gotten riches more than they live America.


64 posted on 03/21/2020 7:42:40 AM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (AOC the bartender would have had to work on the second floor at Miss KittyÂ’s saloon...)
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To: hecticskeptic

Hey, it “could” have come from an infected meteor that landed in your back yard.


65 posted on 03/21/2020 7:43:03 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

China virus.
Wuhan Flu.
Kung Flu.
Sweet and Sour Sickness.

OK, so I’m a ricist. Chuck Fina.


66 posted on 03/21/2020 7:46:11 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (The Electoral College is the firewall protecting us from massive blue state vote fraud.)
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To: Travis McGee

“The dominant theory behind “Spanish” flu is it began on a Kansas farm with swine and geese in proximity, then spread to a nearby Army fort, then to Europe on troopships.”

My Dad was seriously injured during a WW1, training exercise (broken back and shoulder). He ended up in that Kansas hospital, and his older brother and wife visited him at that hospital.

After their visit,they drove back home. The next day his brother got sick and died that night. Apparently, that was the only time he had ever been sick. His wife had the flu and survived.

Two of my dad’s 20 something sisters had/were moving to California, they were never heard from. The aunt who raised them, felt they got the flu, died and were buried in some type of mass grave.

Meanwhile in the Army Hospital, my Dad caught the flu and he convinced the nurses/orderlies to get his mattress out of the hospital and lay them on ground so he could be in the fresh air and sunlight and avoid the illnesses inside the hospital.

He survived and didn’t know about his older brother dying
and his two missing sisters. He was told when he got back to his aunt’s home.

My Dad, his Aunt and her family never wanted to discuss their personal family losses from that flu. It took decades for a sibling of mine to obtain the realities above.


67 posted on 03/21/2020 7:47:19 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ((FearRepublic.com - keeping the media panic narrative going 24/7 to finally bring down Trump)!!!!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

CHINESE BIO-WEAPON. Ooops, we let the genie out of the bottle.


68 posted on 03/21/2020 7:49:55 AM PDT by paulcissa (Politicians want you unarmed so they can kill you.)
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To: Travis McGee
Novel coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 95 percent had China responded to the outbreak just three weeks earlier than it did, a March 13 study by the University of Southampton has found.

President Xi Jinping’s The Yellow Peril ChiCom Wuhan Pneumonia Novel Coronavirus aka the Red Death/Mass People Killing Virus, Chinobyl#2, The Yellow Peril, Made in China!


69 posted on 03/21/2020 7:51:22 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ((FearRepublic.com - keeping the media panic narrative going 24/7 to finally bring down Trump)!!!!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

“Calling a thing by its right name is the beginning of wisdom.”


70 posted on 03/21/2020 7:54:01 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Nobility is defined by the demands it makes on us - by obligations, not by rights".)
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To: NoKoolAidforMe
Again, sorry for cursing, but I am so fed up!!!

Well said!

71 posted on 03/21/2020 7:55:23 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It’s attacks like this (yearly flu) that has convinced me this is a deliberate act of economic terrorism. It came from China ...so what?


72 posted on 03/21/2020 7:58:46 AM PDT by exPBRrat (.)
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To: Grampa Dave

The “Just the Flu” bros should watch this.

“The shocking centre of the COVID-19 crisis”

UK Sky News

The crisis gripping the town at the centre of the global COVID-19 crisis in Italy has been witnessed by Sky News’ Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J60fQr0GWo


73 posted on 03/21/2020 7:59:47 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Note to the ChiComs: Trump hasn’t done anything to you over this.

Yet.

But the American public doesn’t have to wait for Trump. There is an uber long list of crap made in China that Americans don’t really need, don’t have to have, can live without.

Keep pushing and you’ll find out the hard way. And Trump will be the least of your worries.


74 posted on 03/21/2020 7:59:49 AM PDT by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds.)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

China is toast and they know it. I can just imagine the world wide lawsuits against that country not to mention the boycotts of any company that deals with them. They know this which is why they are desperate to snake their way out of it.

What I want to know is what are democrats involvement in this? Did they collude with the Chinese to spread this to destroy the economy? Why did this guy Charles Lieber of Harvard set up a lab in Wuhan of all places last year??

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00291-2

The truth behind what you want to know, might be discussed 60-70 years from now.

Like the Japanese diplomatic code being cracked way before Pearl Harbor was attacked, the CIA’s involvement in offing JFK, the reality behind the Gulf of Tonkin, the attack on the Liberty, the capture of the Pueblo and our sailors just to begin with.


75 posted on 03/21/2020 8:03:09 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ((FearRepublic.com - keeping the media panic narrative going 24/7 to finally bring down Trump)!!!!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

China poisoned the world and then tries to discriminate against anyone claiming to call it as it is. Shameless, Godless aggressive bastards!


76 posted on 03/21/2020 8:03:55 AM PDT by Vision (Obama corrupted, sought to weaken and fundamentally change America; he didn't plan on being stopped.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpCXeXu59AU&feature=youtu.be

But, it isn’t China...it’s Trump?


77 posted on 03/21/2020 8:06:44 AM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

An article this long by Chinese state run media trying to deflect blame tells me they’re feeling some heat.


78 posted on 03/21/2020 8:08:15 AM PDT by seowulf
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To: WashingtonSource

Back when Drudge was useful, he had a link to the North Korean government’s “news” site.

The PRC must have hired NK’s propagandists because the language and the tone sound exactly like it.


79 posted on 03/21/2020 8:08:24 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Grampa Dave

It was supposed to be a targeted attack that got out of hand in process.

This was the black Swan event democrats were praying for and collaborating to produce.

now they have it but trump has outmaneuvered them and his popularity and acceptance percentages have gone through the roof.

The criminals have conspired to overthrow our nation not just our president they hate the Christian majority.
It’s going to get quite messy because the cities are going to revolt over this that was the plan and they are still on track for that. In some terms you might say they already passed the event horizon right after trump won and just before the election of 2016.


80 posted on 03/21/2020 8:12:02 AM PDT by MIA_eccl1212 (When the bad guys have leverage they often use it)
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