The coronavirus pandemic, in addition to killing dozens of lives, is also causing racial tensions around the world. There is a long history of naming pandemics by linking them to a specific place and people. For example, the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was found in Spain, was called ‘Spanish flu’ and the recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) is named after the Ebola River in the Congo, where it was first discovered. In the same way, West Nile Virus and Zika were also named according to their geographic origins. Following the same theme, people started calling the coronavirus, which for the first time raised its ugly head in the city of Wuhan in China, as ‘Wuhan coronavirus’ or ‘Chinese virus’. Even well-known Western newspapers, such as The New York Times and the Washington Post, used similar terms to initially refer to the virus.

Official nomenclature: The World Health Organization (WHO) officially named death a coronavirus disease and the virus as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). The Associated Press (AP) stylebook, which is considered the gold standard for media professionals, prescribed the use of coronavirus or COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-19).

Trump’s plain speech: In the election-bound United States, where political temperatures soared recently, Republicans began using terms such as the Wuhan coronavirus, the Chinese virus, and even Kung-Flu to highlight the origins of the virus. President Trump, who generally throws political correctness into the garbage can and tells the truth, repeatedly used the expression ‘Chinese virus’ to highlight the fact that the virus not only originated in China but also spread due to the conspiratorial actions of China’s totalitarian communist regime.

Is the reference to China racist? The Communist Party of China (CCP), which does not respect freedom of expression and exercises strict control over its national media, opposed the use of China-centric expressions, calling them racist. And the left-wing Western newspapers, which used the same terms until now, changed their tune and began to follow the CCP’s line. Even left-wing politicians around the world also followed the CPC line and began to punish people who used the expressions that highlighted the Chinese origins of the virus.

What do people think? Regardless of what the WHO says or prescribes AP Stylebook, the virus that originated in the city of Wuhan in China will always remain as a ‘Chinese virus’ in people’s minds. Because people firmly believe that the horrible eating habits of the Chinese and the conspiratorial actions of their communist regime regarding the virus outbreak pushed the world into this terrible crisis.

Mass cover-up: It is a widely known fact that the CCP-led communist regime is highly despotic and authoritarian. He wants to use his economic and military influence to achieve his political and territorial ambitions. In pursuit of his ambitions, he strictly controls information to build a favorable narrative about himself. As a result, there are almost no independent media houses in China. The media that exist in China have been reduced to a mere propaganda machine of the despotic regime. There are reports that China is even trying to get favorable publicity by buying popular magazines to plant favorable news and opinion pieces about itself. It is said that even many Indian journalists sold their souls to the CCP.

Terrible eating habits: After the coronavirus pandemic began to inflict increasing mortality, many questions arose about the role played by China, where the disease originated. The first thing the world began to discuss was the horrible eating habits of the Chinese. The Chinese are known to eat anything that moves, including scorpions, snakes, bats, dogs, donkeys, and more. According to the research findings, the new coronavirus originates from Chinese slaughterhouses and wet markets. Therefore, people all over the world concluded that the terrible eating habits of the Chinese led to the birth of this virus. Many videos are circulating both on social media and in mainstream media describing the cruel and overwhelming methods the Chinese use to kill animals, such as boiling and burning live animals.

Conspiracy actions: And furthermore, there are many allegations that China concealed the enormity of the virus outbreak to avoid damage to its economy. He diverted the world by stating that the coronavirus is not transmitted from person to person and therefore the world does not have to worry about it. He also tried to create the impression that the virus is only local in China and therefore no flights need to be canceled. The world trusted his words and, as a result, paid a heavy price in terms of lives lost and damage to the economy.

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152

The tweet made by the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 14, 2020 is a clear indication that China lied about the nature of the virus.

Li Wenliang, the Chinese whistleblower doctor, who warned colleagues about the virus in December 2019 and took to social media to alert people, was accused of spreading false news and was reprimanded by the Communist Party of China (CCP) . The doctor later contracted the virus and died during treatment. The CPC issued a posthumous apology to the doctor’s family. There are many observers who feel that if the CCP had listened to it and taken appropriate measures to slow the spread of death and even alert the world community, the world would have been in a much better place to mitigate the aftermath of the virus. outbreak.

Expulsion of Journos: China expelled many American journalists who it believed were working against its interests. Journalists working for prominent newspapers such as the New York Times and The Washington Post were expelled by China for not following their line. The never-ending opacity maintained by the CCP dealt a fatal blow to the world’s efforts to contain the virus during its initial stages.

Selling fake death numbers: Many observers are even suspicious of the fatality figures given by China. If a small country like Italy can have more than 15,000 deaths, China must have suffered many more deaths, which it somehow concealed. According to a US intelligence report, China’s public reports on cases and deaths are intentionally incomplete and its death figures are false.

Conspiracy theories: There are many conspiracy theories that are flying thick. Many observers believe that China, to promote its economic and territorial ambitions and establish its hegemony in the world, participated in the manufacture of biological weapons. And during the manufacturing process of these weapons, the virus accidentally escaped from one of its laboratories.

According to the tweet sent by China Daily on May 29, 2018, the Wuhan Institute of Virology located in Wuhan in Hubei province preserved more than 1,500 virus strands. Surprisingly, the tweet was deleted some time ago, reinforcing suspicions that China wants to hide something from the world community. Many observers suspect that the virus escaped from one of those biosafety labs due to a week-long biosafety management.

Although there is no way to verify these claims at this time, suspicions will always remain in the minds of people who consider the CCP’s lack of trust.

WHO biased: Even the WHO was the recipient for the way it dealt with the coronavirus crisis. Rather than independently verify the facts, he simply followed the line of the Chinese Communist Party and kept the world in the dark.

When many countries such as the United States, Australia and Singapore were denying entry to foreigners traveling from China as part of their efforts to limit the spread of the virus, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom urged the world community not to do so. He even went so far as to describe these measures as “unnecessarily interfering with international travel and trade.” His statements along the CCP line were largely responsible for the spread of the virus everywhere.

He even misled the world about the nature of the disease. There are allegations that the WHO chief, when he was Ethiopia’s health minister, acted in favor of Chinese interests, and China, as a quid-pro-quo, actively promoted his candidacy for the position of WHO chief using his political influence. .

Conclusion: The COVID-19 outbreak and its aftermath brought to the fore the dangerous and toxic nature of China’s communist regime. The lack of democracy and the absence of independent media keep the world in the dark about the potential dangers emerging from China. Their economic, political, and territorial expansionism denies a level playing field for other nations and works to their disadvantage. Therefore, the world must come together to launch an independent investigation into the virus outbreak and the role played by the Chinese communist regime.

China, after navigating through the crisis keeping everyone in the dark about the events, opened its factories and resumed production. The COVID-19 test kits that it exports to Spain and Turkey have proven to be defective. Even the Netherlands, after discovering that masks imported from China were defective, withdrew them from the market. Although products produced in China are known for their mediocrity, the virus that originated from them appears to be robust and durable. The world community undoubtedly has to put up a united front to combat the coronavirus disease at this juncture. But at the same time, it must also be on guard not to allow the Chinese totalitarian regime to take advantage of the situation to establish its political, territorial and economic hegemony in the world.

List of works cited:

Hasson, Peter. “China helped put this man in charge of the World Health Organization. Is it paying off?” The national interest, Center of National Interest, March 23, 2020.

Lisa, Schlein. “The head of the WHO urges countries not to close borders to foreigners from China.” Voice of america, Feb 3 2020.

Nick, Wadhams and Jacobs Jennifer. “China concealed the extent of the virus outbreak, according to US intelligence” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, April 1. 2020.

Payne, Adam. “The Netherlands recalled 600,000 coronavirus masks that they imported from China after discovering they were defective.” Business Insider, March 29, 2020.

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