Chinese net users concerned as ‘virus defeats US’ with over 1 million infections

The number of COVID-19 infections in the US has topped 1 million – nearly one-third of all cases worldwide, with the death toll surpassing 58,000. The shocking figures, marking an ominous milestone for the superpower, also triggered heated discussions in China on Wednesday.

On China’s Twitter-like Weibo, “US coronavirus surpassed 1 million” has become a trending topic. As of press time, the topic has drawn more than 260 million views from over 18,000 posts.

Many Chinese netizens compared the US’ anti-epidemic efforts with China’s. A comment which reads “China: I’m the master of my own destiny. The US: Survival of the fittest,” got more than 11,000 likes.

“It took China two months to defeat the coronavirus, while it took the coronavirus two months to defeat the US,” another one read, which garnered 3,812 likes.

Many internet users expressed concern for the Americans. “Are the American friends feeling OK?” a post read, “Hope the US will see the turning point soon.”

In the face of such a grim situation, US President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that the number “will go down to zero ultimately,” and pinned the blame on the experts who had predicted the epidemic “would never affect” the US.

The Trump administration is again playing the blame game, Ni Feng, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

US experts have been sending warnings for a long time. It was the Trump administration that neglected these messages and underestimated the severity of the epidemic, said Ni, noting that the US government cannot escape responsibility for its failure in responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, especially in its early stages.

Chinese netizens also criticized Trump’s remarks, and the hot topic “Trump responded to 1 million cases” received 150 million views as of press time.

A Weibo comment read, “Trump is right. The number will surely ‘go down to zero’ – when all people die,” which got 9,698 likes.