Screenshot shows the opinion article written by Mitchell Blatt, an editorial assistant at The National Interest, entitled "Don't Listen to the 'China Covered Up the Coronavirus' Narrative."
"The claims of a 'cover-up' are inaccurate. They are nothing but a cover for politicians and countries with antagonistic relationships towards China to defend themselves in front of their domestic publics and to pressure China internationally," said an opinion piece published recently in U.S. magazine The National Interest.
WASHINGTON, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The narrative that "China covered up the coronavirus" is inaccurate and so are the claims supporting the narrative, said an opinion piece published recently in U.S. magazine The National Interest.
The article, written by Mitchell Blatt, an editorial assistant at The National Interest, was entitled "Don't Listen to the 'China Covered Up the Coronavirus' Narrative."
Listing a few claims the U.S. administration used to hold China responsible for the wide spread of the virus, which included undercounting data, slow response and denial of human-to-human transmission, the commentary refuted them one by one.
The U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington D.C. May 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)
"The claims of a 'cover-up' are inaccurate. They are nothing but a cover for politicians and countries with antagonistic relationships towards China to defend themselves in front of their domestic publics and to pressure China internationally," it said.
As to Chinese statistics about the infection, the article said, "the number of cases reported by different cities and regions in China shows a strong correlation with the amount of outbound travel from Wuhan to those regions, multiple papers have found," indicating that the numbers reported were "relatively accurate and not fabricated."
Medical staff from Wuhan No.1 Hospital gesture to bid farewell to members of a medical assistance team from Guangdong Province before their departure in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, March 23, 2020. (Xinhua/Chen Yehua)
Citing figures and examples in the United States and some European countries, the article said China's overall response was "more effective than most countries."
Noting that the White House has been trying to turn China into a scapegoat, it pointed out that "the reasons for the severe outbreak here (the United States) have to do with mistakes by governors, government agencies, and (U.S. President) Donald Trump himself."
By comparison, the article made the biased blame plain. "When China mishandles a pandemic, it is ascribed to malfeasance; when the United States and Europe do, it is the ordinary, expected incompetence."
Concluding the article, the author said the narrative is not only inaccurate and "being used to absolve domestic leaders of responsibility for their mistakes, but it is also in a sense an anti-democracy narrative." ■
