Are the Russian and Chinese governments spreading misinformation on coronavirus?

I had heard rumours on Chinese social media that they were holding the US responsible for the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan a number of weeks before the story broke. The story goes that a US military team spread the virus during the Military World Games in Wuhan in September 2019.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Deputy Director General Zhao Lijian had tweeted an article authored by Canadian writer Larry Romanoff that the Americans were responsible, so this sparked my interest, I now follow him on Twitter.

The Montreal based group named Global Research claims to be a think tank, but appears to be nothing more than a conspiracy theory webside. Based on some basic internet research, Romanoff appears to not be as well credentialed as he claims to be.

No long after, The New York Times ran an article co-authored by Julian E. Barnes, Matthew Rosenburg and Edward Wong regarding Chinese and Russian disinformation. Rosenburg had been awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2018, Wong was awarded a Livingstone Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, so they are all well credentialed journalists.

I read an article on Singapore’s The Straights Times that the residents of Wuhan were starting to emerge from lockdown and the general feeling was happiness. They have endured a long two months; however, their attitude seems very blasé and indifferent about the effects of this disease on the rest of the world.

So I decided to comment on the article, I had planned to write a post about this very issue and the replies (if any) would form part of my response. Boy, did my comment cause some aggressive replies, whilst I wanted to gauge responses, this was certainly an eye opener.

As a duty of disclosure so people can form their own opinions, my initial comment was "Pride? That's a new take on national pride... Pride that they infected the whole world with the coronavirus from their unsanitary wet markets but they are doing ok now because Italy and Spain are losing lives on an unprecedented scale." 

I responded to the first comments with this response before shutting down the notifications. "There are horrible rates of infection and death in developed nations. What is looking likely will be truly horrific rates in the undeveloped areas of Africa, Central Asia and South America."

I had read that Chinese trolls were attacking individuals commenting about China’s culpability in regards to the coronavirus outbreak, subsequent mismanagement and poorly executed cover-up, so I decided to see for myself.

Known as the 50 cent party, as it is claimed these online trolls are paid fifty cents for each online comment. There is also chatter they are just government employees seeking to gain influence within their department for promotion.

I am glad I take these responders as fools, these responses are certainly acidic using fake accounts and personal attacks to push their agenda. Fortunately they don’t bother me, I could well understand why a person who is a little fragile could really come apart with disastrous consequences.

After an hour or so, I had turned off the notices linked to this article, I wasn’t engaging these angry, nasty people although I wanted to read their responses at a later date. The individuals interviewed were proud of their country and how their superior system was better than the west.

Responding to these people is like stepping in dog shit, you can choose to walk around or you can step right in it. They are all angry and bothered and I am laughing at them, they provide some of the research to the theories I am following up.

So the early responses were along the lines of these countries should have followed WHO advice so they will get what they deserve. The Italians were the source of the virus and brought it to China, Italian doctor Giuseppe Remuzzi states he was misquoted in a textbook example of propaganda.

When they worked out I was from Australia, they started on the indigenous angle not knowing my personal background. What these idiots clearly do not know is indigenous communities in central Australia are being heavily locked down to protect these vulnerable people, they are at greater risk than mainstream Australia and this virus could devastate these communities.

There was of course the race based comments, there is no such thing as reverse racism, this will be the topic of a later post. After my initial scan of the comment section, there were no comments about being an ang mo - let’s see if this changed when I check on the weekend. I need a good laugh and the angrier these fools get the better.

People are dying in Italy and Spain, the UK is looking in serious trouble along with France and Germany. The rest of Europe is the new epicentre of the virus outbreak and the US could eclipse them all. How could they be so callous, instead inciting national pride in a disaster of their creation, at time of publishing, there are more than 1 million infections and 50,000 deaths.

I worked in Africa in 2019 so I feel some affinity with the plight of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it is a harsh life for these people. My concern is the medical systems of developed countries can’t cope with the sheer number of patients, people living in developing countries.

This time last year I was riding my mountain bike through their villages so I have a bit of an idea of what life is like for them there, these people were my colleagues and friends. Fortunately I am able to keep in contact with them on Linkedin.   

Boy did I hit the jackpot with my comment. I latched onto the Chinese nationalistic feeling and the misinformation they are engaging in. When I post, I will be sending them a link thanking them for their input - you proved correct what others were saying. Then I get to use google analytics to trace their point of origin so I get to test my theory.