The Blame Game !

It is probably inevitable that this coronavirus pandemic would get the rumour mill running.  The Chinese Communist party leadership is using that same fake news strategy that was employed to divert votes in the 2016 American election to suggest that this virus actually originated in the United States.

A story launches from a Canadian disinformation site has tweeted a video of US Congressional testimony suggesting COVID-19 did not originate in Wuhan but in the United States instead.  Like all such disinformation, it was cleverly  edited and framed to deceive.  Now that the epedemic seems to have run its course in Wuhan, China is posturing to present itself as the world's saviour and carefully erasing its disgraceful attempts to shut down news of the outbreak by heavily punishing doctors who sounded the alert.

Prominent Chinese diplomatic officials and news outlets  are now promoting the outright conspiracy theory that the US military  brought the coronavirus to Wuhan.  This is more in line with the tactics employed by Moscow and echo the methods of the old Nazi propaganda machine that " if you tell the same lie often enough it will become the truth ".

This is intended to hide the fact that the CCP government " handled this horribly " and the entire world is paying a price for that.  The Chinese model did not solve this virus dilemma.  It created it - and it wants to hide that.

It is noticeable that for the first time President Donald Trump has referred to COVID-19 as the " Chinese disease " as a counter to the disinformation campaign.  COVID-19 has disrupted the world economy and the passage of time will decide whether or not it leads to a world recession. There is no doubt it will alter career paths for many people and it seems that China is desperate to shift the blame elsewhere.

Interestingly, China may be wondering about the reaction of its big neighbour - Russia..  The Russian economy is dependent on oil sales - and the oil price has dipped to below thirty dollars a barrel.  If Russia is struck with mass unemployment President Putin may decide that a national  military adventure is the best way to draw attention away from economics.

It is impossible to predict just where this coronavirus outbreak is taking the world, except in a very different direction from the immediate past.