‘They couldn’t put out the fire’
Although
the Trump administration is now furious with China, it did not become openly
hostile towards Beijing until late February.
By CAMERON STEWART and WILL GLASGOW
- From Inquirer
May 9, 2020
- 5 MINUTE READ
This
is the final part of our investigation by Cameron Stewart and Will Glasgow on
China and the coronavirus
Although the Trump administration is
now furious with China for its behaviour in relation to the coronavirus, it
did not become openly hostile towards Beijing until late February.
As recently as February 7, Trump
tweeted that Xi was “strong, sharp and focused on leading the counter-attack”
and that “discipline is taking place in China as President Xi strongly leads”.
Yet by late February, when it became clear that the US would be hit hard, the
White House turned on China, asking what it knew about the virus, and when.
Pompeo accused China of mishandling
the pandemic by employing “censorship” of medical professionals and the media.
The White House’s anger about China underplaying the extent of infections and
deaths in Wuhan was only heightened by China’s abrupt upward revision in April
of the official coronavirus death toll. Beijing lifted the toll by more than one-third,
or 1290 deaths, to 3869 — a number Washington believes is still far lower than
the reality. By early March, as infections and deaths began to soar across the
US, China began to hit back at growing criticism from the Trump administration
and elsewhere.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao
Lijina sent Trump into a rage by suggesting the virus might have originated in
the US. “When did patient zero begin in the US?” Zhao tweeted. “How many people
are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who
brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data. US owe us
an explanation.”
A week later, around mid-March, US
intelligence agencies noticed Chinese intelligence agencies pushing
disinformation across social media. The messages, purporting to come from the
Department of Homeland Security, claimed Trump was going to lock down the
country the next day with “troops in place to help prevent looters and
rioters”. The White House’s national security council was forced to respond by
sending its own tweet to say that the Beijing-backed messages were “FAKE”.
NOV 17, 2019
First
identified patient
First identified patient infected with what was later named
COVID-19 was found in Hubei on November 17, according to a report in the South
China Morning Post.
DEC 10, 2019
Prawn
seller sick
Wei Guixian, a prawn seller in downtown Wuhan’s South China
Seafood Wholesale Market, starts feeling sick.
TIMELINE
DEC 30, 2019
Lab test
results
Dr Ai Fen, the head of the emergency department at Wuhan Central,
receives results from a laboratory test into the mysterious disease. She shares
the results with her medical colleagues, including D Li Wenliang.
TIMELINE
DEC 31, 2019
“Pneumonia
of unknown cause”
World Health Organization’s Beijing office informed of a
“pneumonia of unknown cause”, detected in Wuhan. Informed some patients were
operating dealers or vendors in the Huanan Seafood market.
TIMELINE
DEC 31, 2019
“Spreading
rumours”
Dr Li Wenliang is summoned to the Wuhan Public Security Bureau and
told off for “spreading rumours”.
TIMELINE
JAN 1, 2020
Dr Ai
reprimanded
Dr Ai is reprimanded by Wuhan Central hospital officials for sharing
information about the new virus with medical colleagues
TIMELINE
JAN 3, 2020
US
informed, samples destroyed
China first tells the US about the new virus and begins giving
daily updates on the virus to the WHO; on the same day China's National Health
Commission orders institutions in Wuhan not to publish any information related
to the unknown disease and to destroy samples of the disease.
TIMELINE
JAN 6, 2020
US
rebuffed
Trump administration offers to send a team of America’s best
disease experts to China. Beijing says no.
TIMELINE
JAN 14, 2020
“Most
severe challenge since SARS”
At a closed meeting, the head of China’s National Health
Commission says the situation is “the most severe challenge since SARS”; on the
same day the WHO repeats that “the virus does not spread readily between
people”.
TIMELINE
JAN 20, 2020
Human-to-human
transmission
President Xi Jinping first publicly addresses the virus in
comments published in China’s state media; in an interview on China’s state
television station, Chinese doctor Zhong Nanshan confirms the virus can spread
between humans.
TIMELINE
JAN 21, 2020
Coronavirus
first mentioned by Scott Morrison
The PM mentions the virus publicly for the first time in a TV
interview, amid reports of people with SARS-like symptoms in Wuhan. “I should
stress that (the Chief Medical Officer’s) advice has been that this virus is
not at the sort of extreme level of what the SARS virus has,” he said.
TIMELINE
JAN 23, 2020
Wuhan in
lockdown
Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, is put into a lockdown. It lasts for
72 days.
TIMELINE
JAN 24, 2020
China
travel bans
Travel bans imposed on almost all of Hubei, population 60 million.
TIMELINE
JAN 25, 2020
Australia’s
first case
Australia records its first case of coronavirus.
TIMELINE
JAN 27, 2020
China
travel suspension
China suspends group travel to foreign countries; the same day
Wuhan’s mayor says China’s centralised political system did not allow him to
reveal the true situation earlier: "As a local government, we need to get authorisation
before disclosure”.
TIMELINE
JAN 31, 2020
US bans
China travellers
Trump bans entry by foreign nationals who had recently visited
China; Chinese officials say the ban “neither based in fact nor helpful”.
TIMELINE
FEB 1, 2020
Australia
bans China travellers
The government bans entry for all travellers from mainland China,
except Australians and permanent residents. Official travel advice to
Australians for China is raised to Level Four – “Do not travel.”
TIMELINE
FEB 7, 2020
Dr Li
Wenliang dies
Trump tweets that President Xi is “strong, sharp and focussed on
leading the counterattack” on the virus and that “discipline is taking place in
China as President Xi strongly leads”; Dr Li Wenliang dies after being infected
with COVID-19.
TIMELINE
FEB 13, 2020
Australia’s
China ban extended
The travel ban is extended. The Chinese Embassy condemns the move
with “deep regret and dissatisfaction”.
TIMELINE
FEB 24, 2020
Aylward
praises China
The WHO’s delayed China joint mission ends with a press conference
in Beijing. The mission’s head Bruce Aylward praises China for its
transparency.
TIMELINE
FEB 27, 2020
Australia
prepares for a pandemic
Morrison effectively declares a pandemic ahead of the WHO. “We
believe that the risk of a global pandemic is very much upon us and as a
result, as a government, we need to take the steps necessary to prepare for
such a pandemic.”
TIMELINE
MAR 12, 2020
China
suggests US origin
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhoa Lijina suggests that the
virus may have originated in the US.
TIMELINE
MAR 19, 2020
Australia
closes borders
Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne announce Australia will
close its borders to all non-citizens and non-residents from 9pm the following
day.
TIMELINE
MAR 23, 2020
“World
should thank” China
The state-run Xinhua news agency claimed that the “world should
thank” China for its early response to the virus.
TIMELINE
APR 3, 2020
Wet
markets a "very real problem"
Morrison tells 2GB’s Alan Jones that Chinese wet markets are “a
very real and significant problem”, which “the World Health Organisation should
do something about”.
TIMELINE
APR 15, 2020
World
Health Organisation
Morrison declines to back Trump’s move to suspend funding for the
WHO. He says he sympathises with the President’s criticisms of the body, but
declares the body “does a lot of important work, including here in our own
region in the Pacific”.
TIMELINE
APR 17, 2020
Wuhan
death toll increased
Chinese authorities retrospectively increase Wuhan’s death toll by
50 per cent.
TIMELINE
APR 19, 2020
Call for
an independent review
Payne calls on the ABC’s Insiders for an independent review into
the pandemic. She calls for “transparency” from China, saying it is
“fundamental” to examine the origins of the virus and its development into a
pandemic. Morrison later confirms the proposal has “my very, very strong
support”.
TIMELINE
APR 27, 2020
Inquiry
is “dangerous”
China’s Ambassador Cheng Jingye, in the AFR, warns Australia’s
push for an inquiry is "dangerous", and could result in Chinese
consumer boycotts of Australian goods and services. Payne lashes the comments,
branding them “economic coercion”.
TIMELINE
MAY 1, 2020
Morrison
refutes lab source claims
Morrison pushes back against claims that the virus came from a
Wuhan lab. “There's nothing that we have that would indicate that was the
likely source,” Morrison says. "The most likely scenario ... relates to
wildlife wet markets, but that's a matter that would have to be thoroughly
assessed.”+
−
In the face of growing criticism,
China stepped up its efforts to avoid media scrutiny. It revoked press
credentials for almost all American citizens working in mainland China at the
Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post — its biggest
expulsion of international press since Mao Zedong established the People’s
Republic of China in 1949.
A week later, on March 23, the
state-run Xinhua news agency claimed the “world should thank China” for its
early response to the virus.
But far from thanking China, many
are questioning its behaviour in this pandemic.
John Lee, former senior adviser to
former foreign minister Julie Bishop and a senior fellow at the Hudson
Institute in Washington, DC, says that when taken together, China’s actions on
the coronavirus amount to “recklessness and even malice”.
“The criticism does not stem from
COVID-19 emanating out of China but from the Communist Party’s initial emphasis
on prioritising the controlling of messaging and suppression of its own doctors
over preventing a national health crisis, playing down the severity and
transmissibility of the virus to WHO and the world when it knew otherwise, and
allowing its citizens to travel internationally when it was taking measures to
protect its own country,” Lee tells The Weekend Australian.
“The CCP’s actions should also lead
the world to consider the extent to which we should trust the CCP and place
faith in Chinese authoritarian institutions as the country’s power grows and
the CCP demands a greater leadership role in global institutions.”
A Pew Research Centre survey
released last month found more than two-thirds of Americans now have a negative
view of China — the highest level since the centre’s surveys began in 2005.
Trump has sharply stepped up his
criticism of Beijing in recent weeks as the US death toll continues to climb,
and he is expected to make China a major target during his upcoming election
campaign.
This week, Trump and Pompeo have
taken their criticism to a new level, with both embracing the idea that the
virus emerged from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan. “My opinion is they made a
mistake,” Trump says. “They tried to cover it, they tried to put it out. It’s
like a fire. You know, it’s really like trying to put out a fire. They couldn’t
put out the fire.” Pompeo says a “significant amount of evidence” points to a
lab being the source, although he has not revealed what this evidence might be.
Scott Morrison has distanced himself
from those claims, believing a wild animals market is the most likely source.
‘There is no
question of Chinese malfeasance. The damning facts are indisputable’
US intelligence agencies are looking
into the lab theory but have not come to any conclusions. However a Department
of Homeland Security Intelligence report written on May 1 concludes Chinese
leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic in early
January. The report argues Beijing hid details to hoard medical supplies to
deal with the outbreak.
Morrison is making a global push for
an inquiry into the origins of the virus and has written to G20 leaders seeking
their support. So far the US, New Zealand and the EU have supported an inquiry,
but discussions continue as to when it would begin and how it would be
organised. Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne welcomed the growing
discussion about an independent COVID-19 review that “Australia helped start
nearly three weeks ago”.
Meanwhile, the WHO said this week it
had asked China to approve a fact-finding origins review. After escalating
rhetoric about the lab theory, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua
Chunying on Thursday said Beijing would support the WHO’s origins review “at an
appropriate time”.
Pompeo and Trump are pushing for an
even broader reckoning, threatening unspecified punishments for Beijing. Says
Pompeo: “China behaved like authoritarian regimes do — it attempted to conceal
and hide and confuse.”
James Jay Carafano, a vice-president
at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, says China’s behaviour on coronavirus
has been catastrophic and unconscionable. “China significantly delayed, by weeks
and perhaps even months, reporting the virus … that catastrophically slowed the
world’s response effort and sped the spread,” he says. “Compounding this fatal
lack of co-operation is the unconscionable fact that the regime let many tens
of thousands leave the country, even though officials knew these travellers
could be carrying the virus.
“There is no question of Chinese
malfeasance. The damning facts are indisputable.”
Cameron
Stewart is The Australian’s Washington correspondent. Will Glasgow is the paper’s
China correspondent.
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