China's questions on U.S. COVID-19 response aren't disinformation

The cover of the report published by the Associated Press and the Atlantic Council examines the information environments of four countries – China, the United States, Russia and Iran – during the first six months of the COVID-19 outbreak and the false narratives that took hold there. /Screenshot via atlanticcouncil.org

**Editor's note: **Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

The Associated Press and the Atlantic Council published a joint report on Monday alleging to prove that China took a direct role in leading global COVID-19 disinformation operations. The lengthy document relies on misleading innuendo and speculation to make its fraudulent case. It claims to document the origin of COVID-19 conspiracy theories purporting that the virus was created either in a Chinese or American laboratory before focusing mostly on what its authors say was the Chinese government's involvement in spreading the second-mentioned theory.

To save readers the half hour or so of their time that it takes to read the report in its entirety, the basis upon which those two outlets make their case is the tough questions that some Chinese officials and media outlets asked about the U.S.' COVID-19 response. Most people are already familiar with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian's tweets last March when he appealed to the U.S. to be more transparent with its COVID-19 information and allow an independent study into the virus' origins just like it was demanding China to do at the time. He didn't spread any conspiracy theory, but asked tough questions that are worth considering.

The respected diplomat's point is even more powerful now than it was back then. The U.S. has since become the world's epicenter of COVID-19 cases, with a larger number of them and more deaths than any other country. The former Trump administration's opaque response to the pandemic and proud spreading of debunked conspiracy theories wrongly alleging that the virus escaped from a Chinese laboratory covered up its epidemiological crisis at home which continues to kill Americans to this day. Had the U.S. listened to Mr. Zhao's advice last March, this seemingly never-ending tragedy might have been avoided or at least greatly mitigated.

Perhaps one of the greatest disservices to humanity that the former Trump administration ever did was to racially relabel COVID-19 as the so-called "China virus" (and other variations of that racist name) and pretend that banning entry to the country for Chinese would magically solve the pandemic. They neglected to follow China's and the World Health Organization's (WHO) suggestions for preventing, containing, and treating the virus. This terrible trend even continues under the present Biden administration, although they've thankfully stopped referring to COVID-19 in a racist way. The U.S.' insensible approach made the outbreak so much worse.

Unlike the U.S., China has allowed the World Health Organization (WHO) to carry out a study within its borders, something that America refuses to allow to this day. Beijing is dedicated to getting to the bottom of COVID-19's origins while Washington continues to deflect from its responsibility in failing to contain the pandemic within its own borders. That failure has endangered global epidemiological security, and though the Biden Administration rejoined the WHO, it hasn't invited the organization to carry out a study within the country. This suggests a lack of sincerity on America's part to not only identify COVID-19's origins, but also to resolve the crisis at home.

A man wearing a face mask walks on a street in Brussels, Belgium, September 29, 2020. /Xinhua

As it becomes increasingly clear that the original conspiracy theory about COVID-19 supposedly originating from a Chinese laboratory was never anything other than fake news, the U.S.-based Associated Press and Atlantic Council coincidentally released their report blaming China for related conspiracy theories. Whether it was their intention or not, this amounts to an attempt to distract the global audience from that truth and further deflect American responsibility for its epidemiological crisis at home. To note, the Russian government banned the Atlantic Council in 2019 on the basis that it poses a threat to the country's constitutional order.

A review of the Atlantic Council's "honor roll of contributors" reveals that it's partially funded by the U.S. State Department, NATO Public Diplomacy Division, and the NATO StratCom Center of Excellence, all three of which are masterful perception managers previously accused of spreading actual propaganda about their many targets. Several NATO-member-country's Ministries of Defense and even the NATO Defense College Foundation also fund the Atlantic Council's activities, among many other patrons. Quite clearly, these facts alone should be enough to cast doubt about the intentions and conclusions of anything that the Atlantic Council produces.

Bearing this important insight in mind, the Atlantic Council's jointly produced report with the Associated Press claiming that the Chinese government took a leading role in spreading COVID-19 conspiracy theories shouldn't be taken seriously. It's an information warfare product designed to manipulate perceptions about China to redirect criticism towards it and away from America after the U.S.' conspiracy theory blaming a Chinese laboratory for COVID-19 was debunked. China's tough questions about the U.S.' COVID-19 response aren't "disinformation," but urgent appeals for America to allow the WHO to carry out studies in the country.

There's too much that isn't known about how and why the U.S. became the most severely affected country in the world. The American government has also obfuscated all attempts to independently study this and even ridiculously resorted to spreading debunked conspiracy theories about China to distract from these uncomfortable facts. As the world finally begins to turn its attention towards America after realizing that the pandemic must be contained there to save the planet, a shady think tank coincidentally released a jointly published report spreading yet another conspiracy theory about China. It's obvious what's going on.

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