From March 16 to March 30, 2020, then U.S. President Donald Trump publicly referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” more than 20 times. Many American media outlets also called the new virus “Chinese,” simply because the emergence of the novel coronavirus was first officially recorded and confirmed in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Leading the charge were “Fox News,” “Breitbart News,” and “The Wall Street Journal.” “Breitbart News” still has a section on its website titled “Chinese virus,” referring to the coronavirus, with 2,820 search results for that term.
HOW THE FEAR OF THE VIRUS IS MEDIA-SYNTHESIZED INTO A “CHINESE THREAT”
One study (After “The China Virus” Went Viral: Racially Charged Coronavirus Coverage and Trends in Bias Against Asian Americans) by a group of American scientists showed that on March 8, 2020, at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of retweets containing the phrase “Chinese virus” on the then “Twitter” increased by 650%. The next day, this increase reached 800%. The study also noted that then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo frequently used the term “Chinese virus” on Fox and CNBC on March 7. The research stated that from March 8 to 30, 2020, the level of “racial bias” against Asian Americans increased for the first time in 13 years. Moreover, it skyrocketed. Exotic markets in Wuhan and the local laboratory were presented, without a shred of evidence, as the “sources” of COVID-19. This media campaign was also strongly felt in Serbia. While China dealt with the new virus on the ground, the media readily and without hesitation relayed everything that was communicated about the virus’s origins, heavily pointing the finger at China as the nation responsible for the looming apocalypse.
THE “CHINESE THREAT”
The situation escalated to the point where the World Health Organization (WHO) soon addressed the issue. On March 19, Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergency programs, warned public figures and media outlets not to use the phrase “Chinese virus,” emphasizing that viruses know no borders and don’t care about your ethnicity, skin color, or bank balance. “It is really important that we be careful with the language we use,” Ryan said at a press conference in Geneva, referencing the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak. “That pandemic originated in North America, and we didn’t call it the North American flu,” he said at the time. Neither the U.S. president, nor the U.S. secretary of state, nor many leading American media outlets were interested in determining facts and relevant information. Instead, their goal was conscious manipulation of the public and garnering political support. The fear of coronavirus was synthesized through the media and social networks into public opinion as a “Chinese threat,” without anyone feeling the need to properly justify or prove it. This brief episode in modern world history is important because of what followed.
JEFFREY SACHS EXPOSES POTENTIAL AMERICAN ROLE
Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, also president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, as a member of The Lancet‘s COVID-19 commission, determined that there is clear evidence that the U.S. National Institutes of Health and many members of the American scientific community hindered a serious investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and diverted attention from the hypothesis that risky U.S.-backed research may have contributed to millions of deaths. Through his research, Sachs concluded that very dangerous biotechnological experiments are being hidden from the public, many of which were supported by the U.S. It is also very possible that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for COVID-19, arose as a consequence of research on dangerous viruses. Based on the facts and information Sachs uncovered, it is very likely that the U.S. financed and participated in research in biolaboratories around the world. That is why Sachs called for an independent investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, which cannot easily be said to have occurred naturally. However, to this day, no such investigation has taken place.
SOLOMON ISLANDS AND A SOLOMONIC SOLUTION
Given this outcome of the “Chinese virus” story, the latest “narrative” circulating in the media and on social networks about American biolaboratories in Ukraine seems naïve. In this story, U.S. diplomatic veteran Kurt Campbell recently traveled to the Solomon Islands. One morning in 2022, he “noticed” an extensive article in the local press stating that the U.S. was running chemical and biological labs in Ukraine. “Started by Russia, the false and inflammatory claim was strongly amplified by China’s massive overseas propaganda apparatus,” reported AP recently, quoting Campbell’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July of this year, calling it another example of “blatantly effective Russian and Chinese disinformation.” “Two years later, the claim still resonates online, showing China’s significant effort to reshape global perceptions,” AP noted in its report.
WE JUST NEED TO TRUST THE U.S. ON THEIR WORD…
No one knows exactly why the highly respected U.S. diplomat chose the Solomon Islands to reframe the news about American biolaboratories in Ukraine as a problem of alleged geopolitical propaganda, when Russian and other global media outlets had reported on it much earlier and more extensively. He likely wanted to suggest from the Solomon Islands that Chinese and Russian “propaganda” reaches even the most distant and smallest corners of the world. However, it is certain that there is no “Solomonic” solution to this issue, even when we include the Solomon Islands. For now, the global public is left to follow their own political instincts based on the available information. The world knows only this much for now: the U.S. has admitted to spending hundreds of millions of dollars on 46 biolaboratories in Ukraine. The official goal of this project is to dismantle weapons of mass destruction left over from the Soviet era. On the other hand, the Russians claim this is a story for children and that the U.S. secretly conducts military projects in biolaboratories worldwide.
RUSSIA BELIEVES THE U.S. SHOULD COMPENSATE VICTIMS
Russian Duma President Vyacheslav Volodin once called on the U.S. to halt all military-biological experiments worldwide. “Millions of sick and dead around the world, the global economic crisis, and the decline in living standards are the consequences of COVID-19, for which Washington must be held accountable: all U.S. military-biological experiments being conducted globally must be stopped, and the veil of secrecy lifted,” Volodin said. Volodin added that the U.S. must compensate the affected countries. “Now that such accusations are being made, Biden remains silent. He is afraid the world will discover the truth about the real cause of the pandemic,” he said. Moreover, Russia claims that the U.S. continues to work on the development and production of biological weapons, based on materials obtained from Ukraine.
WHO IS TRANSPORTING BIOMATERIAL FROM UKRAINE?
According to Russian Colonel General Igor Kirillov, the companies involved are “Gamma Logistics” and “Aerotranscargo,” tasked with overseeing the transportation of biological materials, organized by the companies “Biopartners” and “Q2 Solutions” (a subsidiary of one of the largest Pentagon suppliers). Between August 2022 and May of this year alone, more than 2,000 cases of transporting biological materials from Ukraine to the U.S. via Moldova were registered, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
CHINESE RESTAURANT SYNDROME
When considering the campaign against China and Russia at any cost in the American (Western) media, it is essential to remember that politicians and the media use every pretext to conduct it. The emergence of the virus in Wuhan, with subsequent investigations and Sachs’ claims as the outcome, is neither the only nor the most striking example. In U.S. and Western public discourse, among other stereotypes, the term “Chinese restaurant syndrome” has long been entrenched. Rumors spread through social networks and the media that people feel tired and sleepy after eating in Chinese restaurants. This sensation is attributed to the alleged presence of glutamate, particularly in the form of monosodium glutamate (MSG). Although numerous scientific studies have shown no convincing evidence that glutamate causes negative effects, this urban myth has remained a powerful media weapon, and no one considers asking for proof for such claims. Just like in the case of American biolaboratories in Ukraine, which the U.S. itself admits exist, the global public is expected to simply take the American establishment and media at their word, without them necessarily bearing the burden of proving their own claims.
