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China’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday implied that the U.S. Army “might be” be responsible for bringing the coronavirus to Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak first emerged late last year.
Tweeting in English, foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian wrote: “When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals?”
Zhao went on to suggest that it “might be [the] US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan."
“Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation,” he wrote.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian during his first regular press briefing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry. (Roman BalandinTASS via Getty Images)
Days earlier, China’s ambassador to South Africa also downplayed his country’s role in the pandemic.
“Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus originated from China, let alone 'made in China,'" he tweeted.
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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.
The Chinese government has published a book, in multiple languages, boasting of the country’s efforts in curbing the deadly outbreak.
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The book, “A Battle Against Epidemic: China Combatting COVID-19 in 2020,” mixes glowing state media reports on the accomplishments of President Xi Jinping and the dominance of China’s system in fighting the crisis.
Fox News’ Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.