It appears that editors at China's state-run Global Times newspaper are just throwing darts on a U.S. map and guessing where it sticks next. The paper is now alleging that the true origins of the coronavirus that caused the COVID-19 global pandemic came from sunny Florida just a day after they alleged it originated from North Carolina. The Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly insisted that the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China in 2019, came from elsewhere, specifically from the United States.
According to Breitbart, the Chinese Foreign Ministry continues to allege that the virus was leaked by the U.S. Army facility Fort Detrick in Maryland, infecting Americans before the virus appeared in Wuhan. The Chinese Foreign Ministry went on to present "evidence" of some cases of e-cigarette or vaping lung injuries in 2019, which Beijing authorities insist were "secret coronavirus cases."
The communist government of China has repeatedly denied that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where coronavirus studies have long been taking place, saying that such an accident was "impossible." It insisted that the virus leaking from Fort Detrick was truly how the pandemic began and failed to explain the absence of evidence that proved how vaping lung injuries are contagious, given that the Wuhan outbreak showed high transmissibility of the coronavirus.
In 2020, a leaked Chinese government document showed how the regime documented its first COVID-19 case in Wuhan as early as November 17, 2019. Studies have later shown how human infections may have spread in the Hubei province as early as October 2019. The CCP only notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of an outbreak in late December 2019 and claimed it was not contagious, despite it having killed 4.32 million as of August 2021, just 20 months into the pandemic.
Since 2020, the CCP has continuously rejected allegations that the coronavirus began in Wuhan in 2019. In retaliation, they alleged that the U.S. is using an investigation into the origins of COVID-19 for political gain. Global Times claims that an anonymous "source close to the matter" said that Washington is planning a "political war" over evidence that points to Wuhan as the true source of the coronavirus.
Global Times also alleged that "people in Florida complained about the concealment of information on these cases" of COVID-19, which appeared "even earlier than the virus outbreak in Wuhan." It insisted that the Florida cases came earlier than the ones that appeared in Wuhan. But foreign media and foreign governments have accused Chinese state media of citing non-existent "experts " to back their claims.
In fact, Switzerland most recently called out the Chinese media for publishing quotes from a "fake" Swiss scientist about the origins of COVID-19. According to ABC News, several Chinese newspaper websites were found to have quoted "a Swiss biologist who does not appear to exist," as per Switzerland's foreign ministry.
A certain Wilson Edwards, who according to the Washington Post, took to Facebook on July 24 to criticize the WHO's investigations into the origins of COVID-19 and claimed to be a Swiss biologist, said in a post that the investigation had been politicized and that the Biden administration "spared no efforts in rebuilding U.S. influence in the organization." Seeing as his statements suited China's narrative, Chinese media picked up on it.
However, the Swiss Embassy in Beijing took to Twitter this week to shut down Chinese media, writing that they were looking for "Wilson Edwards, alleged Swiss biologist" who was "cited in press and social media in China over the last several days."
"If you exist, we would like to meet you! But it is more likely that this is fake news, and we call on the Chinese press and netizens to take down the posts," The Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing said. Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Pierre-Alain Eltschinger reiterated that the comments were "wrongly presented as coming from a Swiss biologist." Some Chinese newspapers have since taken down the comments.
