China took a jibe at the United States with a short video which said that Washington didn’t listen to the words of caution from Beijing on the coronavirus outbreak. The animated video was posted on Twitter by the Chinese Embassy in France on Thursday and was titled ‘Once upon a virus’.
The video lists the timeline of the outbreak, with cartoon figures representing China and the United States accusing each other. While the Chinese side in the video says it informed about the discovery of a new virus in January, the US didn’t take any note of it.
The one minute 39 seconds video further shows China announcing its lock down in January 2020, and the US calling it barbaric. It also shows the US accusing China of human rights violation - more than once. The video ends with a jibe from the US that they are always correct ‘even though we contradict ourselves’.
Once Upon a Virus… pic.twitter.com/FY0svfEKc6
— Ambassade de Chine en France (@AmbassadeChine) April 30, 2020
The video generated a lot of buzz on Twitter. Many users called China’s claims of warning ‘fake’ and ‘misleading.’ Others said this is more damaging to China.
False propaganda from the Chinese ambassador to France, whitewashing over its government’s deceptions and mocking U.S. objections to its human rights abuses. RTing so folks can see the Chinese government lying in real time — https://t.co/yg3MX5S5ud
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 30, 2020
This is more damaging to China. LOL. https://t.co/ArHETLyTTz
— Gabbbar (@GabbbarSingh) May 1, 2020
Once Upon a Virus… pic.twitter.com/FY0svfEKc6
— Ambassade de Chine en France (@AmbassadeChine) April 30, 2020
The coronavirus outbreak started from Wuhan in China in December and spread across the globe, affecting more than 3.4 million people and killing over 2.4 million but Beijing has reported fewer cases and deaths than in the United States, which now has the world’s largest outbreak.
US President Donald Trump has lashed out at China for the outbreak. Sharpening his rhetoric on Thursday, Trump said that his hard-fought trade deal with China was now of secondary importance to the coronavirus pandemic and he threatened new tariffs on Beijing, as his administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.
The outburst against China reflected Trump’s growing frustration with Beijing over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic contraction and threatened his chances of re-election in November.
