CHINA’S SICK DECEPTION ‘RISKS WAR’
Beijing report warns of US conflict
An internal report from the Beijing government says anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 because of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic — and could spark a military conflict with the United States.
The report was presented to President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese leaders last month by the country’s Ministry of State Security, Reuters reported Monday.
Beijing is now facing a tsunami of anti-China sentiment, led by the United States, and must prepare itself for an armed confrontation between the two global powers as part of a worst-case scenario, the internal report warned.
It cautioned that Washington could increase financial and military support for regional allies.
State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Chinese officials had a “special responsibility” to inform their people about the spread of the virus, “since they were the first to learn of it” in December 2019.
“Beijing’s efforts to silence scientists, journalists and citizens and spread disinformation exacerbated the dangers of this health crisis,” she added.
There are more than 3.5 million cases of COVID-19 globally and the pandemic has killed nearly 250,000 people.
The report was put together by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a think tank associated with the Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence agency.
China’s Foreign Ministry called for cooperation between the world’s top two economies, saying “the sound and steady development of China-US relations” serves the interests of both countries
and the international community.
President Trump has accused Beijing of downplaying the severity of the outbreak and failing to report accurate data, leaving other countries unprepared for the coronavirus’ ferocity.
And US officials believe that China covered up the extent of the outbreak — and how contagious the disease is — to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, newly revealed intelligence documents show.
Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January, according to a four-page Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated May 1 and obtained by The Associated Press. The revelation came as the Trump administration intensifies its criticism of China, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying Sunday the Communist Party-ruled country was responsible for the spread of the disease and must be held accountable.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is “turbocharging” an initiative to remove the US from dependency on a China-based supply chain and weighing imposing new tariffs to punish Beijing for its response to the pandemic, according to a report Monday.
The economic damage and death toll from the outbreak has prompted a government plan to shift the supply chain from China — an extension of Trump’s pledge to return manufacturing jobs to the United States.
“I think it is essential to understand where the critical areas are and where critical bottlenecks exist,” Keith Krach, undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment at the State Department, told Reuters.
A number of agencies, including the Commerce and State departments, are looking at how to move the supply chain and manufacturing from China using tax incentives and other measures, according to the report.