China bashes US over COVID-19 prevention measures

Asia-Pacific, News January 8, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

China took a hard line against the U.S. for its response to the pandemic prevention measures.

During China’s Foreign Ministry’s regular press briefing on January 5, the spokesperson Wang Wenbin was asked about the major spike of Omicron variant in Japan and the comments from the Governor of Okinawa Denny Tamaki where he said that the U.S. Military has caused the surge in the virus spread. Spokesperson Wen Wenbin responded that the recent spread of the Omicron variant in Japan surged among the personnel from the U.S. military base in Japan.

Wang Wenbin stated that “This is not an isolated incident as clusters of cases in US military bases overseas have posed severe threats to local people’s life and health. Spread of infections has also been caused by U.S. military personnel in South Korea and Germany.”

“COVID-19 protocols should be applied without exception, be it a place or a person. The U.S. should deeply reflect on the negative impact of its acts on global anti-pandemic cooperation. It should enforce strict restraint on US military overseas, show respect and a sense of responsibility toward the health of people around the world, instead of setting a bad example in the global fight against COVID-19,” Wang Wenbin added.

China has repeatedly criticized the U.S. “politicization” of the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ arms control department Director-General Fu Cong said “Scapegoating China cannot whitewash the U.S.”

Earlier in May 2021, China’s State Council Information Office released an 18-page document, slamming the United States for its failure to contain the pandemic.

The U.S., with the highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, “saw its own epidemic situation go out of control,” the report stated. China also argued that “the epidemic [in the United States] went out of control and turned into a human tragedy due to the government’s reckless response.”

China also claimed that the “epidemic led to mass unemployment. Tens of millions of people lost health insurance coverage” in the U.S., and vulnerable groups became the biggest victims of the U.S. government’s “reckless response” to the COVID-19 epidemic.

China urged the U.S. to show “humility and compassion for the suffering of its own people, drop hypocrisy, bullying, ‘Big Stick’ and double standards, and work with the international community to build a community with a shared future for humanity.”