When future generations ask, who started the war? Remember that the seeds for the current war of words between the Chinese Communist Party and the United States were sown in February, when, Cui Tiankai, the Chinese Communist Party ambassador to the United States, claimed that anyone calling the COVID-19 outbreak by virtue of its origin, such as the Wuhan Virus, would be inciting racial discrimination and xenophobia. The World Health Organization, and the United Nations, along with the usual list of names from the perpetually angry Leftist Twitter echelon, backed the Communist narrative, declaring that use of the term “Wuhan Virus” was indeed racist and xenophobic.

At the time Tiankai argued that the Chinese government didn’t know a great deal about the virus, or how it spawned. This is despite Wuhan being its epicentre. He then claimed that all repressive actions taken against whistleblowers were proportionate to the need to maintain public calm; saying that Doctors, who sought to raise the public’s awareness of the virus, should have gone through the appropriate bureaucratic channels because the communist party ‘wanted more solid evidence’ before making any decisions. Tiankai added that the C.C.P looked forward to cooperating with the United States, dismissing conspiracy theories, as unbelievable ‘crazy things’, such as the theory that the Wuhan Virus was ‘created in a military lab in the U.S.’

With success in controlling how the world views the coronavirus, Communists in China have deflected attention away from where the virus began. With W.H.O, the U.N. and prominent leaders on the Left jumping on the COVID-19 newspeak, and demonizing anyone who uses the phrase “Wuhan Virus” as racist and xenophobic, the Chinese Communist regime’s propaganda units have been emboldened. The new public image campaign appears to be trying to convince the world, that the United States, and not China, is the one to blame for the Wuhan Virus outbreak.

Contradicting Ambassador Tiankai’s dismissal of conspiracy theories involving the United States, the Chinese Communist Party, has made what appears to be a complete turnaround. The C.C.P are now actively fuelling theories about America’s alleged involvement, by firing targeted verbal broadsides at the United States, falsely accusing the U.S army of starting the Wuhan Virus.

Ryan Saavedra of The Daily Wire reported last Friday that, Zhao Lijian, a ‘spokesmen for the Chinese Foreign Ministry suggested that the U.S. Army may have brought the coronavirus to China’. He also ‘posted links to other propaganda that falsely claimed that the coronavirus originated in the U.S.”

As outlined by Saavedra, U.S. authorities were quick to answer the accusation, quoting Republican Senator, Lee Zeldin who stated:

This is such a disgusting take by a Spokesperson for China’s govt, desperately trying to blame the US military for a pandemic that started in their own country. This Chinese propaganda is a LIE! China should accept responsibility for the devastation it caused globally w/COVID-19.

China’s Communist propaganda isn’t being ignored. In a strong rejection of the conspiracy theory being touted by the C.C.P, Donald Trump, very clearly made his opinion known on the matter, asserting on Twitter that:

The United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus. We will be stronger than ever before!

Former CIA officer, self-described centrist and political strategist, Bryan Dean Wright, responded, saying:

Trump called it the “Chinese Virus”. This is not a slip. His intel staff have made it clear that China is spreading propaganda that the U.S is to blame. Trump just dropped the hammer that we will not sit back & let the lies go unanswered. There is a culprit here: China.

Predictably, Twitter went into a mild meltdown over this with accusations of racism and xenophobia. Some Twitter users, one, allegedly an M.D., jumped immediately to the official communist party-line, claiming that Trump had ‘turned to racism and xenophobia’, saying that ‘we’re all in deep trouble now the President of the United States makes this conscious decision to go down this dark path of hate.’

The facts remain evident that the virus did originate in China. The Communist regime deliberately covered it up; delayed telling the world the full story and punished professionals who sought to raise the alarm about the Coronavirus. Note too, that facts about the virus are still largely unknown, which could be easily remedied if China’s ruling communist party was more transparent and cooperative.

On the flip side of the tidal wave of vain outrage on Twitter about Trump’s statement, what you probably won’t hear loudly spoken from Trump’s critics is the fact that the Chinese Communist Party has been actively trying to blame the U.S for the Wuhan virus outbreak (as pointed out above).

The United States hasn’t been the only target of the C.C.P propagandist’s image management campaign. In an article for Quillette, Thomas Brown recently described China’s global politics of distraction, evasion and blame. In one such example, Brown notes how China demanded that Denmark apologise after a Danish newspaper printed a coronavirus cartoon where ‘virus icons replaced the stars in the Chinese flag.’

Brown also noted that in ‘2018, similarly, China’s ambassador in Ottawa said Canada’s arrest of a politically connected Chinese tech executive was motivated by “white supremacy.” The Quillette article rightly made a point of saying that while racial discrimination occurs and is flat out wrong, we mustn’t ignore the fact that

Chinese government has learned to weaponize our own progressive tendencies and has learned to exploit false accusations of racism against democratic societies. Ironically, this same Chinese regime encourages racism and xenophobia domestically.

As the Atlantic’s Madeline Osburn said, it’s blatantly obvious that the ‘Chinese Communist Party does not want to be held responsible as the source or spread of COVID-19’ (aka the Wuhan Virus).

Now that the Chinese Communist Party has moved from laughing off conspiracy theories as unbelievable, to openly support claims that the U.S. military is responsible for the COVID-19 – Wuhan Virus – outbreak, it’s only a matter of time before Trump’s enemies on the Left, link Trump directly to responsibility for the Wuhan Virus. Such is the sociopathic nature of manipulative propaganda and the political opportunists who use it to buttress their own quest for power.

China’s communist propaganda will be music to the ears of “never Trumpers” who are already easily swayed because of their dissonant hate Trump/love trumps hate platform. How long will it be until leaders on the Left, who hold the view that “Trump-is-literally-Hitler”, seize on China’s propagandist efforts to gaslight the world; align themselves with an oppressive regime, and further a manipulative narrative that dresses Donald Trump up as the oppressor and everyone else the oppressed?

It could be argued that this is exactly what the ABC is encouraging in its report on China’s backflip and false accusations. Nowhere in the article does the writer use the word false or cite the turnaround in official views on the matter. Articles like this are the reason why many lean towards an agreement with those who want to reduce the ABC’s funding, hold it to its mandate and/or make the ABC a subscription-based service. The anti-America, pro-CCP tone is undeniable.

For the rest of us, this war of words, and China’s aggressor role in it, should be of more concern, than whether or not a person assigning the origins of a virus to its name is racist or xenophobic. In trying to use the virus outbreak to dodge criticism, the Chinese Communist Party is employing fear and suspicion, and not only plying political leverage out of a tragedy but dividing the world into a pro-U.S and anti-U.S camp, at the very time when unity and the spirit of cooperation should be the order of the day.