Chinese State Media in Arabic Floats Theory U.S. Army Made Coronavirus

A paramilitary police officer wearing a protective facemasks to help stop the spread of a
NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images

Chinese state media has told the Arab world that the Chinese coronavirus came from the United States and might have even escaped from a U.S. laboratory.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) recently published a transcript of a Chinese state produced propaganda video with Arabic subtitles which falsely told the Arab world that the Wuhan coronavirus came from the United States rather than China.

“Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus in China, some followers have asked me, do you believe a story that the new coronavirus is made by the USA? And every time my answer was: No. I can’t believe it unless there is evidence to prove that,” began the woman in the Chinese state propaganda video, entitled, China View.

The woman – dubbed “Ms. V” – went on to claim that she has since discovered “new facts” indicating that “patient zero” in China “has come from outside China.”

During the episode of China View, broadcast by China Global Television Network (CGTN) Arabic TV, “Ms. V” tells her audience that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shutting down Fort Detrick, an alleged U.S. Army biological research lab, suggests that the Chinese virus came from the United States.

“In September 2019, some Japanese were infected with the new coronavirus after returning from Hawaii, though they had not visited China before,” the host claimed, without offering evidence for this claim. “This happened two months before the beginning of the outbreak in China. Shortly after the CDC suddenly and completely shut down the facilities, after claiming that the Fort Detrick Biological Weapons Laboratory had failed to fully prevent the loss of pathogens. Now the data related to this lab has disappeared on the internet.”

“The CDC suddenly and completely shut down the facilities, after claiming that the Fort Detrick Biological Weapons Laboratory had failed to fully prevent the loss of pathogens,” said Ms. V.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has also accused the United States of the inception of the coronavirus by suggesting that it was created in the research lab.

Moreover, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has also pushed the CCP’s coronavirus conspiracy theory by openly suggesting that the virus was a weapon devised by the U.S. military and brought to Wuhan.

In the propaganda video, Ms. V also claimed that the United States participating in the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan and the potential of some U.S. influenza deaths actually being Chinese coronavirus deaths is enough “evidence” to claim the Wuhan virus started in the U.S.

Ms. V also alleged that the Asahi Corporation of Japan, which publishes the national newspaper Asahi Shimbun, had published a report verifying some of the claims made in the propaganda video, according to MEMRI.

Asahi Corp. has denied the existence of any such report, according to the Washington Times, which added that a scientific report cited by Ms. V, which does exist, never states that the coronavirus came from outside of China.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.), which has been called out for being “China centric” and has repeatedly praised Beijing for its failed response to the pandemic, has stated that there is no evidence of the U.S. military planting or transferring the coronavirus at the Military World Games last October, reports the Washington Times.

The report added that the biological research lab at Fort Detrick was partially closed on the recommendation of the CDC over a breach of sanitation procedures but has since been reopened and is doing research into the Chinese coronavirus.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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