US Says China, Russia Coordinate On Virus Conspiracies
CHINA – The United States accused China and Russia of coordinating on conspiracies theories about the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic.
The first case of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was reported in Wuhan City, China last December. The deadly virus has infected more than 3 million people around the world.
COVID-19 has spread to at least 185 countries and killed hundreds of thousands of people. Health officials advised the public to observe social distancing.
The United States of America has the world’s highest number of coronavirus deaths. Based on a report from ABS-CBN News, the US accused China and Russia of coordinating on virus conspiracies.
The coordinator of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, Lea Gabrielle, said: “Even before the COVID-19 crisis we assessed a certain level of coordination between Russia and the PRC in the realm of propaganda.”
“But with this pandemic the cooperation has accelerated rapidly… we see this convergence as a result of what we consider to be pragmatism between the two actors who want to shape public understanding of the COVID pandemic for their own purposes,” she added.
According to the report, the US agency claimed they found out that Russians have been spreading conspiracies about the COVID-19 pandemic. They said Russian-linked social media accounts allegedly posted that the virus was created by the US.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman claimed that the US military brought the deadly virus to Wuhan City, China. The Tweet outraged the US. The top epidemiologist in the US and the World Health Organization (WHO) said there is no evidence that COVID-19 came from a laboratory.
Based on the report, Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone. They discuss how they could step up their cooperation amid the pandemic.
Lea Gabrielle said China has strengthened its online campaign to defend its way of coping with COVID-19. She said China also used a bot network to louden its message. She said the two countries found a “convergence of narratives” on the COVID-19 pandemic.
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