Recently, China has been thrust into the limelight again as the source of the outbreak, and the issue has been the topic of discussion at the G7 summit, where even WHO Director-General Tandezai, who has been openly defending China, has changed his tune this time. While the U.S. has not received clear support from its allies in investigating the origins of the “Wuhan lab leak,” the pressure on Beijing and the expense of defusing this action is predictable.
What exactly happened recently that led the lazy Biden administration to take action? I believe there are two major reasons.
First, Fauci, the “Captain America” credited by the left with leading the public’s fight against the new epidemic, has been caught up in the “Emailgate” controversy. Unlike the WikiLeaks revelations, where politicians could ignore many of Assange’s dark secrets because he used hacking techniques to obtain information, this action is entirely legal, with BuzzFeed News, the Washington Post, and CNN requesting disclosure of the contents of Fauci’s emails from the federal government in early June under the Freedom of Information Act. The 3,200 pages of emails released not only show Fauci’s erratic and contradictory approach to the fight against the epidemic and a suspected string of conflicts of interest in the scientific community, but also embarrass the Biden administration because they involve the “gain-of-function” virus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research, which was heavily funded under Obama and of which Fauci was the the promoter of the project.
On top of that, Obama’s restart of the gain-of-function virus research that had been shut down shortly after Trump’s 2016 victory, and the various revelations that the Democrats used the epidemic to backtrack, were not good for the Democratic administration in the United States. After weighing the pros and cons, Biden announced on May 17 that the U.S. would supply 80 million doses of vaccine abroad over six weeks while considering going after China. With the U.S. “entry,” China’s importance in this global vaccine supply race has diminished.
Second, China’s outbreak diplomacy and outreach has recently encountered difficulties. The United States is not supposed to be involved in the international community’s vaccine supply. According to London-based research firm Airfinity, China exported 252 million doses of vaccines overseas as of early May this year, accounting for 42 percent of its total production. By comparison, the U.S. produced more than 333 million doses of vaccine while exporting only about 3 million doses.
For China, there is nothing more unpleasant than the constant flow of news questioning the quality of Chinese vaccines, with similar news coming out of Chile, Brazil, Pakistan, all successfully “debunked” by Chinese foreign propaganda, the latest being the Indian Ocean island of Seychelles in May. The island is said to have the highest vaccination rate for the new coronavirus in the world, with more than 60 percent of the population vaccinated against the Chinese vaccine, but there has still been a spike in infections. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported on May 12 and 13, and Chinese official media then published an interview with Seychelles President Ram Karawan in which he refuted claims that the Chinese vaccine was ineffective.
Beijing’s self-appointed leader in the fight against the epidemic causes a backlash
Why did the Seychelles president say something different from the public? This question should be answered by the International Federation of Investigative Journalists (IFJ) in a survey published on the same day as the Wall Street Journal, entitled COVID-19 Stories: Taking the Veil Off China’s Global Strategy. A questionnaire was sent to journalists in 50 countries and regions around the world to gauge the breadth of global media coverage in China following the outbreak of the new crown outbreak. The survey found that 56 percent of countries and regions surveyed reported that their coverage of China has turned positive since the outbreak, while only 24 percent have turned negative and the remaining 20 percent have remained unchanged. One-third of the respondents indicated that their media organizations have signed memoranda of understanding with Chinese organizations.
The report notes that after the outbreak, when news of the outbreak emerged that was unfavorable to China, it was countered by the release of distorted information that was favorable to China – the Chinese response to coverage of the Seychelles outbreak corroborates the IFJ report. The report also notes that 63 percent of the reports from recipient countries were “China’s quick action to combat COVID-19 and its medical diplomacy helped other countries,” while 60 percent of non-recipient countries believed that “China’s news blackout in the early stages of the outbreak contributed to the global outbreak. “.
Beijing, with the help of the WHO, has been promoting itself as the world’s model for fighting the epidemic, and China’s role as the source of the outbreak has not been taken seriously by the international community. Now the U.S., due to the “Fauci emailgate” incident, the Biden administration must clear its suspicions of cooperation and decide to join the second half of the global vaccine supply race by formally proposing to Beijing to conduct a second round of traceability investigation of the new coronavirus in China. Considering the circumstances surrounding this matter, one can only assume that this is a backlash against Beijing’s self-proclaimed global leader in the fight against the epidemic.
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