China’s disinformation over pandemic has cost British lives, say MPS

Foreign affairs committee calls on Government to rethink its relationship with ‘obfuscating’ Beijing

AN ORCHESTRATED disinformation campaign by China and other countries is “costing British lives” in the fight against coronavirus, the chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee has warned.

In a report, MPS claim that China – where the virus originated in an animal “wet market” – sought to “obfuscate” over what was really happening as the outbreak began when it should have played a key role in collecting data on the spread of infection.

Tom Tugendhat said last night: “The Government has modelled their response to the coronavirus based on information from across the world. That is impossible to do if a country is misleading you. China’s lies are costing British lives. Now, more than ever, Britain needs to think about resetting its relationship with China.”

The all-party committee’s viral immunity report also singled out Iran and Russia for disseminating false information. It called on the Government to work alongside its international allies to actively “confront and rebut” disinformation being pumped out by foreign powers.

MPS highlighted the way Li Wenliang – the whistle-blower doctor who was one of the first to warn of an apparently new virus wreaking havoc in

Wuhan – was forced to confess “making false comments” before death from the virus in February.

The committee said: “Such deliberate misleading of the World Health Organisation and scientists in other countries obscured analysis in the critical early stages of the pandemic.

“Disinformation about Covid-19 has already cost lives. It is essential that the Government issues clear and transparent messages at home to confront and rebut disinformation spread by foreign powers.

“It must also work closely with allies to present a united front, where possible, and to help ensure that vital international to his

‘Now, more than ever, Britain needs to think about resetting its relationship with China’

research efforts are not compromised by propaganda and bad data.”

The report comes as a study, released today, calls for Britain to pursue the Chinese government through international courts for £351billion in compensation for the outbreak spread. The study by the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think tank, concludes that G7 countries have been landed with a £3.2trillion bill following Beijing’s disinformation campaign.

Downing Street sources have suggested that the Communist superpower would face a “reckoning” when the pandemic is over.

Meanwhile, Michael Gove, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, appeared to lay the blame for the UK’S paucity of testing at China’s door. When asked why Britain did not have sufficient testing, despite the first case in China being known about in December, Mr Gove said: “We’ve been increasing the number of tests over the course of the last month.

“The first case of the virus in China was established in December of last year, but it was also the case that some of the reporting from China was not clear about the scale, the nature, the infectiousness of this.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has led a rebellion against the Prime Minister after he allowed Chinese firm Huawei into the 5G network, said the UK must rethink its relationship with the nation.

He said: “As a result of Beijing’s cover-up and delay, global health experts are convinced the rest of the world had insufficient time to prepare for the pandemic, which means the effect of the outbreak has most likely been worse. For too long, nations have lamely kowtowed to China in the desperate hope of winning trade deals.

“But once we get clear of this terrible pandemic, it is imperative that we all rethink that relationship and put it on a much more balanced and honest basis.”

Yesterday, it emerged that David Davis, a senior Huawei rebel, warned about a new threat of “British-owned intellectual property passing into Chinese ownership”, referring to a Chinese bid to take over Imagination Technologies Group, a British chip designer.

Labour has claimed that Tory criticism of China is a smokescreen for the Government’s own failings.

Richard Burgon, the outgoing shadow justice secretary, said: “This is a Trump-style attempt to divert blame from the Government’s failures.”