There is not a shred of evidence to support that, but the notion
received an official endorsement from China’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, whose spokesman accused American officials of not coming clean
about what they know about the disease.The intentional spreading of an
unfounded conspiracy theory — which recirculated on China’s tightly
controlled internet on Friday — punctuated a downward spiral in
relations between the two countries that has been fueled by the basest
instincts of officials on both sides.
The insinuation came in a series of posts on Twitter by Zhao Lijian, a
ministry spokesman who has made good use of the platform, which is
blocked in China, to push a newly aggressive, and hawkish, diplomatic
strategy. It is most likely intended to deflect attention from China’s
own missteps in the early weeks of the epidemic by sowing confusion or,
at least, uncertainty at home and abroad.
Mr. Zhao’s posts appeared to be a retort to similarly unsubstantiated
theories about the origins of the outbreak that have spread in the
United States. Senior officials there have called the epidemic the
“Wuhan virus,” and at least one senator hinted darkly that the epidemic
began with the leak of a Chinese biological weapon.The conspiracy
theories are a new, low front in what they clearly perceive as a global
competition over the narrative of this crisis,” said Julian B. Gewirtz, a
scholar at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard.
“There are a few Chinese officials who appear to have gone to the Donald
J. Trump School of Diplomacy,” added Mr. Gewirtz, who recently
published a paper on China’s handling of the AIDS epidemic, after a
similar disinformation campaign. “This small cadre of high-volume
Chinese officials don’t seem to realize that peddling conspiracy
theories is totally self-defeating for China, at a moment when it wants
to be seen as a positive contributor around the world.”
The circulation of disinformation is not a new tactic for the Communist
Party state. The United States, in particular, is often a foil of
Chinese propaganda efforts. Last year, Beijing explicitly accused the
American government of supporting public protests in Hong Kong in an
effort to weaken the party’s rule.The old tactic has been amplified by
more combative public diplomacy and a new embrace of a social media
platform that is blocked in China to spread a message abroad.
Victor Shih, an associate professor at the University of California at
San Diego who studies Chinese politics, said that while the campaign was
very likely an attempt to distract and deflect blame, a more worrisome
possibility was that some officials fabricated the idea and persuaded
top leaders to believe it.
“If the leadership really believes in the culpability of the U.S.
government,” he warned, “it may behave in a way that dramatically
worsens the bilateral relationship.”
China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has faced sharp criticism for the
government’s initial handling of the outbreak, even at home. Public
anger erupted in February when a doctor who was punished for warning his
colleagues about the coronavirus died, prompting censors to redouble
their efforts to stifle public criticism.
Chinese officials have repeatedly urged officials in other countries not
to politicize what is a public health emergency. Conservatives in the
United States, in particular, have latched on to loaded terms that have
been criticized for stigmatizing the Chinese people. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo referred to the “Wuhan virus,” while Representative Kevin
McCarthy, Republican of California, called it the “Chinese coronavirus.”
In response, Chinese officials and state news media have stepped up their criticism of American officials’ comments.
Only days before Mr. Zhao’s latest post, the Xinhua news agency
published a commentary denouncing “Washington’s poisonous coronavirus
politics” and warning that spreading rumors simply encouraged “fear,
division and hate.”
“Their dangerously irresponsible statements are highly counterproductive
at this drastic hour that demands solidarity and cooperation,” the
commentary, written by Gao Wencheng, said, “and could be much more
menacing than the virus itself.”
The coronavirus, according to all evidence, emanated from Wuhan, China,
in late December. Scientists have not yet identified a “patient zero” or
a precise source of the virus, though preliminary studies have linked
it to a virus in bats that passed through another mammal before
infecting humans.
