The US military stated that "viruses are not artificial", and the US media denounced the White House for stolen China's actions as "stupid."
[Global Times comprehensive report] The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military, Mark Milly, said on the 5th that there is evidence that the new crown virus originated in nature, not man-made. He also said that there is sufficient evidence that the virus was not released "intentionally." This is another heavy blow to the White House's so-called virus "from Wuhan Laboratory" lie. However, the election is imminent, and the Trump administration seems determined to put all responsibility for China's weak response to the epidemic. According to CNN's news on the 6th, Trump and White House officials have recently held dialogues with "dozens" of foreign allies to discuss how to "hold accountability" to China. "The Los Angeles Times" published a signed comment on the 5th, saying that during a public health and economic crisis, a nuclear-capable economic superpower is now the main enemy of the United States at this stage to meet domestic political needs. , This is the most stupid way. " While politicians are desperately dumping their pans, the domestic epidemic response is still confusing: because of the shortage of beef, some branches of the famous fast food chain Wendy have removed hamburgers from the menu; because the House of Representatives is "Trump hatred "Fox", the top epidemiologist, was banned from attending a 6-day House hearing; when the White House ’s trusted predictive model increased the number of people in the United States who died of new coronary pneumonia to 134,000, the White House Outbreak Response Team came out News about to be disbanded. As the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on the 6th, we advise American officials to still be more in charge of American affairs.
Allies remain vigilant against US stolen China
"Is it from the virus laboratory in Wuhan? Or did it come from a vegetable market in Wuhan? Or originated elsewhere? The answer is: we don't know." Milli attended the press conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Esper on the 5th In response to questions from reporters, the above remarks were made. He reiterated the view of the US intelligence agency that the virus is unlikely to be artificial, and said the federal government is still investigating the source of the virus.
US News Weekly commented that Milly ’s remarks are in sharp contrast to recent Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo ’s comments on the source of the virus, but they are in contrast to Fuchs, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Views echoed far away. According to Agence France-Presse, Pompeo once again said on Wednesday that the new coronavirus "may have originated in the Wuhan Laboratory", but admitted that "we are not sure about this." US President Trump continued to clamor for China to disclose "the origin of the new crown virus" on Tuesday. Before going to Arizona, he told reporters that the United States will publish a report detailing the origin of the new coronavirus, but he did not provide details or release time.
CNN quoted two people familiar with the matter on the 6th as saying that in recent weeks, several government officials such as Trump, Pompeo and White House economic adviser Kudlow had dialogues with "dozens" of foreign allies to discuss how to jointly deal with the alleged "China deliberately covered up the epidemic". But the person familiar with the matter said many traditional American allies remain vigilant about increasing tensions with China. The retaliatory options under discussion within the White House include additional tariffs on Chinese products and further crackdowns on Chinese telecommunications companies, but there are no upcoming actions.
The report said that Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, was one of the people who pushed the president to take a stronger stance. According to three people familiar with the matter, Kushner believes that one way to keep Trump ’s voter base “keep alive” is to attack China for “failure to contain the spread of the epidemic”. A person close to the White House said: “The more you blame this incident on China, the less you can say that we are slow to mobilize.”
In response to related questions at a press conference on the 6th, Hua Chunying said that in fact this is the United States coercion of these countries to help the United States to stolen China together. In fact, many countries have already answered with practical actions. "On this issue, the United States is isolated." She urged the US to stop disseminating false news, stop misleading the international community, and stop playing tricks of blame and "dumping the pot."
Will the White House outbreak response team be disbanded?
According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as of 11:00 pm Beijing time on the 6th, Beijing had more than 1.206 million confirmed cases of new pneumonia and more than 71,000 deaths. To the surprise of the media, US Vice President Pence said on the 5th that the White House is considering dissolving the White House outbreak response team as soon as possible before Memorial Day (May 25). Pence said that this is because the United States has "made great progress" in responding to the outbreak. But on the 6th, Trump again tweeted that the group would work “indefinitely,” but the new focus would be on security and restarting the economy.
The New York Times commented that there is increasing evidence that the new coronavirus pandemic is still raging, but the White House intends to dissolve the White House outbreak response team. New infection rates and death rates in New York are currently declining, but infection rates and death rates in many other parts of the United States continue to rise. Nevertheless, Trump seemed eager to push the country back to normal. He left Washington on the 5th to go to Arizona and inspected the medical mask factory. This was the first time in more than two months that he crossed the central United States as a support for the country to return to normal life. which performed.
Trump said on the 5th that Fawchi is forbidden to testify in the House of Representatives because they are all "people who hate Trump" and "the House of Representatives is a trap." But the White House allowed Fodge to testify at the outbreak response hearing held in the Republican-controlled Senate next week. According to Qatar Al Jazeera, the main content of the Senate hearing next week is to discuss how to resume work and resume classes safely. In an interview with CNN on Monday evening, Foch once again warned all localities not to rush to restart the economy. He criticized those state governments who insisted on adhering to an open economy despite the advice: "How much death and pain are you willing to accept so that they can return to normal as soon as possible?"
CNN said on the 5th that an epidemic prediction model frequently quoted by the White House recently predicted that more than 134,000 Americans will die of new coronary pneumonia in August, citing "too early relaxation of social distance restrictions will lead to more cases and more death".
While the resumption of work has caused widespread controversy, the US government has spread scandals in handling the epidemic. According to the National Public Radio, on the 5th, Bright, a senior scientist of the United States Federal Government, officially submitted a written report to the Office of the Special Prosecutor of the United States, saying that he was removed from the post of director of the Advanced Research and Development Agency of Biomedicine last month because of He is unwilling to promote drugs such as hydroxychloroquine that have not been proven effective to patients with new coronary pneumonia. Trump has previously caused a lot of controversy for recommending this "miracle drug". Bright also claimed that he has not received his salary since April 20. In the 89-page report, Bright said he tried to send out an alert about the new coronary pneumonia epidemic as early as January of this year, calling on the Trump administration to quickly develop treatments and vaccines and reserve more N95 masks and breaths Opportunity, but the leadership of the US Department of Health and Human Services has underestimated the threat of the epidemic.
Let China pay, what the United States will pay
CNN believes that Trump's goal of listing China as a "dumping pan" is out of political considerations. A survey by the Pew Research Center last month showed that two-thirds of Americans currently hold a negative view of China. The internal survey conducted by the Republican National Committee also supports the above data. The survey revealed that in several key "battlefield states", voters' views on China are equally negative.
"The Trump administration has laid a huge lie, that is, China is regarded as the root of the US problem," Sax, director of the Center for Sustainable Development of Columbia University, said in CNN on the 6th that the reason why such lies can play a certain role is It caters to the arrogance of Americans, "If China succeeds, then they must be cheating." This is reminiscent of the McCarthy era, "Trump is Joseph McCarthy today."
Sax ’s article pointed out that the right-wing accusation against China is unreasonable, but Trump ’s criticism of China is not unexpected. Previously, without any evidence, the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that Chinese high-tech companies such as Huawei It poses a direct threat to US national security. But America's closest allies, such as France and Germany, have taken a different direction from the United States on the Huawei issue. The article also lists the timetable for the outbreak warning issued by China and WHO, criticizing the government for taking the time to cause the fact that more than 71,000 people in the United States have died of new pneumonia. The article finally asked: "Mr. Trump, Mr. Pompeo, there have been many warnings. So far, the Americans have not fully recognized your recklessness. Enough, are you not ashamed?"
"Let China pay, will make Americans pay a heavy price," the US "Foreign Policy" website commented on the 5th that the "stupid political season" on the eve of the U.S. election outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic was Trump's responsibility For the reasons of China, the slogan of the Trump administration rally is "Let China Pay". The Republican National Election Commission has instructed the party's weaker candidates to demonize Beijing, "China is used to being used as the backbone of the election." The article warned that if Congress voted to allow Americans to sue the Chinese government, what would happen? The next day, China will authorize its citizens to sue the United States. In a few days, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba will legalize the lawsuit. After a week or two, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Serbia, Haiti and Yemen may pass corresponding legislation. Then, countries like Egypt, Vietnam, Laos, and Mexico will follow suit, and many Latin American countries subsequently joined. Then there will be a lot of lawsuits. Think about the potential risks: Over the past two decades, Washington has bombed, invaded, and occupied more countries than any other country. The United States is accustomed to destructive economic sanctions against other countries. Throughout the Cold War, the United States funded a group of dictators, tyrants, thieves, thugs, and incompetent people. The State Council, the CIA and other agencies have intervened in dozens of foreign elections.
The article concludes that if China is to be prosecuted, Washington must be prepared for all possible consequences, and must believe that after the worst epidemic in a century, it will be helpful to push the already deteriorating relations with China into the abyss. To the interests of the United States. And this seems unlikely.
[Universal Times correspondent in the United States Zhang Mengxu Zheng Qi Global Times reporter Li Xue]