Commentary: Washington's ridiculous smear against China's medical supply trade

Medical supplies are loaded onto a plane heading for Zimbabwe at Huanghua International Airport in Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, May 11, 2020.China has sent a team of 12 medical experts to Zimbabwe to help with the African country's fight against COVID-19.On Monday morning, the experts from Hunan Province left Changsha, along with medical supplies donated by the provincial government, which include ventilators, nucleic acid testing kits, face masks and medical protective suits. (Xinhua/Chen Zhenhai)

Washington has been mounting its smear campaign against China to combat the wave of criticism of incompetence it faces over the coronavirus fight, like a drowning man clutching at a straw.

Following a flurry of false charges against China, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently set its targets on China's medical supply trade and transparency of anti-COVID-19 polices, a politically motivated frame-up aiming to pass the virus buck to Beijing amid its own failure.

China has never concealed its COVID-19 outbreak from the international community. Starting on Jan. 3, several days after China's local authorities detected cases of pneumonia of unknown cause, Beijing has been regularly informing the World Health Organization, and other countries and regions including the United States about the outbreak and sharing with them its scientific research findings and experience.

The DHS's accusation that China intentionally stockpiled medical supplies "by both increasing imports and decreasing exports" is ridiculous, because the report's conclusion is based on the analysts' ill intentions instead of facts.

Yahoo News quoted Daniel Hoffman, a retired senior intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, as saying that "it's trade data. That's not going to answer the question of China's strategic intent," while Nate Snyder, a former DHS counterterrorism official, said "I'm not sure what this product is trying to prove aside from finding convenient open sources to point the finger further at China."

Production and export reduction in China is always expected in the first two months each year when the Lunar New Year holiday disrupts manufacturing to allow time for workers to travel home. This year, the dual pressure posed by the unexpected contagious disease outbreak and the extended holiday made China's manufacturing, including production of medical equipment, hit a record low.

When China took unprecedented measures to lock down cities in order to prevent and control the outbreak at home, it experienced a brief under-supply of medical equipment.

China's sacrifice bought precious time for other countries to fight the virus. As soon as its domestic production gradually resumed, China has been providing as much support to other countries in need within its capacity.

From March 1 to May 6, China exported anti-epidemic supplies to 194 countries and regions, according to China's Ministry of Commerce, despite a huge domestic demand for medial supplies to guard against a virus rebound.

In the same period, customs data showed that China also provided more than 6.6 billion masks, 344 million pairs of surgical gloves, 44.09 million sets of protective gowns, 6.75 million pairs of goggles and nearly 7,500 ventilators to the United States.

The buck-passing strategy by some U.S. politicians cannot hide reality: It is Washington that squandered the time bought by China and undermined international efforts against COVID-19 by imposing export bans on medical supplies.

In April, 3M, a major U.S. mask manufacturer, said that the U.S. administration had required it to halt exporting U.S.-made N95 respirator masks to Latin America and Canada. Washington was also accused by Berlin of "modern piracy" after it diverted shipments of masks intended for the German police and outbid others for medical supplies.

With the absurd mindset of "always blame China," some U.S. politicians have been recklessly shifting blame of their poor performance amid the COVID-19 outbreak and grabbing political gains. However, a lie remains a lie though told 1,000 times, and Washington's blame game will fool no sober minds.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)