Coronavirus: when Beijing prefers to forget Wuhan

Audio 03:36

Aerial view of the P4 laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, April 17, 2020 (illustration image). There is scientific evidence that this virus has not been transformed by human hands. LOUISA GOULIAMAKI / AFP

By: Sophie Malibeaux

On Chinese social media, senior Chinese officials have spoken out on the Covid-19 health crisis. Chinese diplomacy is increasingly occupying the field, promoting international cooperation, even if it means forgetting the origin of the virus.

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We noted this week the series of tweets from the Chinese ambassador to ASEAN, Deng Xijun, based in Jakarta in Indonesia. Six messages that follow, dated April 21: the Chinese ambassador begins by recalling that "  the sudden surge of an epidemic around the world had made, more obvious than ever, the fact that all countries were in the same boat and they would experience boom or decline together  . " Hence the importance of a joint response, and to complete the series of tweets by explaining that China would do everything to ensure the overall industrial effort and the stability of the supply chain.

Without forgetting to recall "  the international consensus against any attempt to label or qualify the virus  ". This is tweet number 3 in the series. In other words, avoid referring to " Wuhan coronavirus " at all costs   .

Why does Chinese diplomacy insist so heavily on how to designate the virus and on the refusal of any label ?

At the time of the emergence of the disease, we are talking about the new Wuhan coronavirus, because factually, this Chinese locality is at the epicenter of the virus, when the very first officially recognized cases appear in December.

Then, on February 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the name Covid-19 to name the disease caused by the virus, whose scientific name is SARS-CoV-2. From that moment, while the epidemic is spreading to the rest of the world, the Chinese make it a point of honor that we no longer speak of "  Wuhan coronavirus  ". Chinese representatives around the world are now working to make people forget the origins of the disease, preferring to highlight the efforts made to help countries in difficulty.

Still, the origin of the virus continues to be controversial? are anti-chinese attacks still justified?

There is one which is not in any case, it is the thesis according to which the virus was manufactured in laboratory in Wuhan. There is scientific evidence that this virus has not been transformed by human hands. And it is true that those who propagate this theory - in particular in circles of the extreme right American - by even evoking the possibility of a biological weapon having escaped its inventor, like to recall the locality of origin of the new virus.

However, it is clear that several months have passed, without being able to trace the mode of human contamination. As with the SARS in 2003, the bat appears as a natural reservoir of the virus, but this time we ignore the intermediate animal which could have transmitted the virus to humans. And some wonder about accidental contamination of humans in the laboratory. There is no evidence yet to reach such a conclusion, but the question remains open. And that is why Beijing is on the defensive. Many international players want to know more. International cooperation is good, in all transparency, it's better.

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  • Coronavirus
  • China
  • WHO