Chinese Officials Suggest That U.S. Army Brought the Coronavirus to Wuhan

On Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry implied that the U.S. Army might be responsible for bringing the coronavirus to Wuhan.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a tweet: “When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!”

His tweet had a video of Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “saying that some Americans who had seemingly died from influenza later tested positive for the new coronavirus,” reported NBC News.

Days before the spokesperson’s tweet, China’s ambassador to South Africa also took his thoughts to Twitter: “Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone ‘made in China’.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry suggests US Army to blame for coronavirus pandemic https://t.co/KfH2SDtla4 pic.twitter.com/5ryDEUO3VJ

— Andy Vermaut (@AndyVermaut) March 12, 2020

According to Fox News, both remarks are “illustrative of China’s massive PR campaign to convince the world that the United States bears the blame for the coronavirus outbreak, which has claimed at least 4,700 lives around the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering.”

NBC News reported that while Twitter is blocked in China, Chinese diplomats who use the social media platform have “appeared eager to float the idea that the virus did not necessarily start in their country at all.”

In a recent press briefing, Zhao said “no conclusion has been reached yet on the origin of the virus. What we are experiencing now is a global phenomenon with its source still undetermined.”