The mild-mannered German scientist never anticipated becoming a Chinese propaganda star.

But Alexander Kekulé, director of the Institute for Biosecurity Research in Halle, Germany, has been all over the state-run media in China in recent days. News outlets have taken Kekulé's research out of context to suggest that Italy, not China, is where the coronavirus pandemic began. Photos of him have appeared on Chinese news sites under headlines reading, "China is innocent!"


Kekulé, who has repeatedly said that he believes the virus first emerged in China, was startled.

"This is pure propaganda," he said in an interview.


Facing global anger over their initial mishandling of the outbreak, Chinese authorities are now trying to rewrite the narrative of the pandemic by pushing theories that the virus originated outside China.

In recent days, Chinese officials have said that packaged food from overseas might have initially brought the virus to China. Scientists have released a paper positing that the pandemic could have started in India. The state news media has published false stories misrepresenting foreign experts, including Kekulé and officials at the World Health Organisation, as having said the coronavirus came from elsewhere.


Facing global anger over their initial mishandling of the outbreak, Chinese authorities are now trying to rewrite the narrative of the pandemic by pushing theories that the virus originated outside China.

In recent days, Chinese officials have said that packaged food from overseas might have initially brought the virus to China. Scientists have released a paper positing that the pandemic could have started in India. The state news media has published false stories misrepresenting foreign experts, including Kekulé and officials at the World Health Organisation, as having said the coronavirus came from elsewhere.



China's leader, Xi Jinping, has led a vigorous effort this year to play down his government's early failures in the crisis, instead arguing that the party's success in containing the virus shows the superiority of its authoritarian system.

The latest propaganda push gives Xi a fresh chance to stoke nationalist sentiment and distract from festering problems, including a lingering wealth gap. The government seems wary of inviting renewed scrutiny of its actions as the pandemic began to unfold, analysts say.


Xi most likely sees the party's missteps as a vulnerability and is eager to avoid potential challenges to his authority at home, said Erin Baggott Carter, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Southern California.

A recent paper by a group of scientists affiliated with the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences indicated that the virus could have broken out in India before spreading to China.

"Wuhan is not the place where human-to-human SARS-CoV-2 transmission first happened," said the paper, which appeared last month on SSRN, an online scholarly repository


The paper, which was not peer-reviewed, had been submitted to The Lancet, a medical journal, for publication.

After drawing wide attention in the Chinese news media and in overseas outlets, the 22-page article vanished from online sites. A spokesperson for The Lancet said it had been removed from SSRN at the request of the paper's authors. The scientists did not respond to requests for comment.

The article was the latest in a series of comments and articles by Chinese scientists arguing that the virus had first surfaced in Italy, Spain or elsewhere before spreading to China.

While recent studies have indicated that the coronavirus may have infected people in the United States and elsewhere earlier than previously thought, researchers still believe the most likely explanation is that it started circulating in China


Edward Holmes, a professor at the University of Sydney who has studied the coronavirus, said the idea that the virus originated outside China seemed to be gaining traction for political purposes.

"It lacks scientific credibility and will only further fuel the conspiracy theories," he said.


https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/this-is-pure-propaganda-china-pushes-lies-to-h...i

It originated in the US.

That's why it's called ACRV.

Dur!   

It started in Sydney, and the Chinese from Chinatown took it to the animal markets in Wuhan

Trump calls it the China virus -

that proves it came from China.

greggerypeccary wrote on Dec 7^th, 2020 at 8:40am:



greggery,

It was Donald Trump who did it !

He cooked up the COVID-19 virus in his WH basement.


Its true, isn't greggery !!!               

The_Barnacle wrote on Dec 19^th, 2020 at 11:11am:



I blame greggery !!!!!!!!        ....err, i mean Donald Trump, of course !

If only Hillary had won in 2016,    ....Donald Trump would never have been able, to release COVID-19 upon the whole world.

Its all true,      ....isn't it greggery !          

greggery will confirm, that its all true.

Yadda wrote on Dec 19^th, 2020 at 1:32pm:



Q.
Whether it is Marxist regime, or nominally, a Democratic regime,
whether it is China, or whether it is a nation like Australia,
when countries FU, what is the cause of them becoming FU ?

A.
Lack, of proper, Political accountability.




A society of men, is a type of 'machine'.

When a machine is well maintained, it [will usually] continue to run well.

But when the maintenance crew decide 'F it, i can't be bothered, to do this.', and when they don't do their job properly,
soon enough, large machines will 'grind to a halt', through a lack of 'tender loving care' being applied to them.


The same, in a society of men [another type of 'machine'].

If everyone starts 'cheating', and the managers of a society of men [the political class] decide to abandon accountability for their own choices [and for the choices of others around them], then that society of men too, will tend to FU in a big way.

Venezuela, Nigeria, Zimbabue, South Africa, etc.


No accountability = = no one is responsible [....for getting    REAL   things done, 'helpful' things done].

And then, one day soon, it 'all falls in a heap'.


.


Choices, have consequences.

If we [collectively] continue, and continue, to make poor choices,     ...then we shouldn't act surprised when we see unpleasant consequences, in front of our eyes.

Ye Grappier wrote :- "Now I beg to differ here - again - at no time EVER have I defended Marxist economies and I take great exception to having discussion of Socialism lumped in with the extremes, as is the usual case. This is merely a puerile attempt to discredit discussion of true Socialism by using the 'reference to Hitler' - in this case 'reference to North Korea' - approach. 

I will however, defend the need for a degree of socialism within any viable society.... and refuse to accept that such a concept implies 'defending' Marxist economies.”

Putting aside for now the problem of any agreed definition of what ‘true Socialism’ might be, I fully accept the notion references to Hitler are often problematic. However, the problem with erecting rigid prohibitions of this kind arises when another ‘Hitler’ appears. I claim the present Chinese leadership fully fits that description.
We are on the edge of a form of warfare with Chinese gangster capitalism ( I refuse to call it socialism) finding ourselves in a position frighteningly similar to the lead up to World War II. That opportunism and blind pragmatism is leading western capitalists to turn a blind eye to this threat reveals the moral vacuum of our age. Instance, the Chinese 'fishing fleet’ ( often Chinese navy ships under the surface) brazenly fishing in Australian waters tells me we're being taken for the fools we are.

I wonder about your meaning when you say "I will however, defend the need for a degree of socialism within any viable society....” My view is rigid adherence to either a left or right ideology makes little sense either way. If, for instance, we decide to run a state supported medical benefits scheme (rather than leaving the populace open to the abuses a US style system) there’s no need to describe such as ‘socialist’.