Chinese people genuinely hope that the U.S. can contain the raging COVID-19 outbreak as early as possible, and at the same time solemnly warn certain U.S. politicians that shifting the blame onto China, stirring up trouble for and confronting China will never change the facts, but will expose their own despicable motives instead.

On a dark, windy night, a gang of vicious terrorists launched a sudden assault on a village. The household that was attacked first was quickly filled with gunfire and became engulfed in flames.

As the family fought for their lives, another family in the village not only stood by and let the situation get worse, but made sarcastic remarks about their misfortune, saying that “this family must have irritated the terrorists, and are now incurring their revenge.”

To their surprise, the family that was brutally assaulted fought back desperately against their attackers and did not flinch in the face of life-threatening danger.

After battling with the family for a long time, the terrorists became frustrated and realized that they had unwisely started a war by attacking a tough family that wouldn’t yield. The mob then decided to shift its focus elsewhere.

To their surprise, the family that had mocked the victims became the new target of the terrorist attack and were caught unprepared.

A complete lack of precautions or prompt response to the attack left the second family completely overwhelmed as the attackers drove straight into their house, wantonly slaughtering its family members and causing massive casualties and tremendous damage to their home.

As shocking as it sounds, at the critical moment when the terrorists were still killing more of its family members, the second family didn’t reflect on its own failure in anticipating the situation and coping with the catastrophe, but started to complain that the first family hadn’t captured and killed the terrorists, and even demanded that the first family compensate it for its losses…

Does this story sound just like what happened after the COVID-19 outbreak?

Today, the U.S. is still facing a severe epidemic situation. Both its number of confirmed cases and death toll from the disease are the highest in the world. No matter what the politicians say, facts are facts.

In an effort to shift the blame onto China to take the attention of the U.S. people away from their own incompetence, certain U.S. politicians first falsely accused China of covering up information about the outbreak, and then cooked up the rumor that the novel coronavirus was leaked from a Chinese lab.

These groundless allegations against China have all been disproven time and again and repeatedly refuted by scientists and medical experts from various countries.

Recently, U.S. politicians have adopted new wording to scapegoat China for the spread of the COVID-19 around the globe, saying, “The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government.”

What kind of logic is that? Just like in the story above, the ridiculous attempt from certain U.S. politicians to pass the buck onto China for its own faults is unreasonable and highly illogical.

Every country wants to wipe out a major infectious disease as soon as it emerges, but no country can guarantee the result, let alone a new, unknown virus like the novel coronavirus. This is only normal and logical.

Mankind knew nothing about key aspects of the virus, such as its transmission and pathogenic mechanisms, when it first broke out, which made it extremely difficult to prevent and control.

China was the first to report the disease, but there has been no final conclusion on when and where the human-to-human transmission of the virus started.

Confronted with an infectious disease that spread the fastest, caused the greatest number of infections and became the hardest to contain since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China made containment of the epidemic its top priority.

Chinese President Xi Jinping personally took charge and planned the response to the outbreak, and the country made nationwide efforts to stop the virus from spreading to other parts of the world.

Putting people’s health and safety above all else while making the worst-hit Hubei province and its capital Wuhan the country’s main battlefield against the epidemic, China put in place clear measures to prevent the coronavirus from spreading within the region or beyond.

The country has taken a series of decisive measures to prevent and control the spread of the disease and treat patients, initially curbed the rapid spread of the disease in just over one month, brought its daily number of new confirmed cases to under ten in about two months, and made significant achievements in the fight against the virus in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan while bringing the epidemic under control across the country in around three months.

For a country with 1.4 billion people, bringing the outbreak under control in such a short time was no easy feat.

Just like many foreign media and international figures commented, China has made unquestionable achievements in fighting COVID-19.

China’s efforts to fight the epidemic helped stem the further spread of the disease and effectively cut off the virus’ transmission chain, contributing significantly to the global fight against the epidemic.

In fact, since the outbreak began, U.S. politicians have praised China for its epidemic prevention and control measures on many occasions, with comments such as: “I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control,” “China has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency,” and “Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation.”

On Jan. 23, China closed all outbound channels at airports and railway stations in Wuhan. Until April 8, no commercial flights departed or arrived, and no trains left the city.

On Jan. 31, the U.S. government was the first among all foreign countries to announce the suspension of direct flights between China and the U.S. operated by three major U.S. airlines. On Feb. 2, the country closed its borders to all Chinese citizens and foreigners who had been to China in the last 14 days.

It appears that the U.S. believes it could rest easy as long as China was there to prevent and control the spread of the virus and it cut air links with China. This has proven to be wishful thinking.

As facts have shown, the U.S. squandered the nearly two-month time window won by China.

The U.S. delay in implementing social distancing measures caused tens of thousands of people to lose their lives to the epidemic, according to a research team from Columbia University.

Had the U.S. begun imposing such measures one week earlier in March, 36,000 fewer people would have died in the pandemic, and about 83 percent of the country’s deaths would have been avoided, the research team estimated.

Some Americans don’t understand why the disease first broke out in China but then spread all over the world rather than various parts of China.

It’s actually quite easy to explain the reasons to those who don’t understand, as the whole thing is not that complicated. Unfortunately, some people already know the answer and just ask this question to mislead the public.

China’s nationwide efforts to fight the epidemic actually refer to travel restrictions across the country, efforts to put a megacity and an entire province with more than 60 million people under lockdown, tremendous mobilization and deployment of personnel and materials to help Hubei with its epidemic fight, free treatment for all COVID-19 patients, regardless of the cost, diligent implementation of joint prevention and control mechanisms in every community and village, and the concerted efforts of 1.4 billion people who willingly wore face masks, washed their hands frequently, and avoided large gatherings of people.

Inconceivable as it may sound for some Americans, this is what actually happened in China, and also the reasons why the disease didn’t see large scale spreading to other provinces of the country and why it was impossible to spread beyond its borders.

Statistics from several major Canadian provinces have shown that the novel coronavirus that spread in Canada was brought to the country by U.S. visitors, according to foreign media.

Australia explained clearly in March that 80 percent of its COVID-19 cases had been either imported from overseas or were close contacts of these people, with most cases being brought in from the U.S.

A latest research report released by Tel Aviv University (TAU) suggested that about 70 percent of Israeli COVID-19 cases had been infected with a novel coronavirus strain that originated in the U.S.

The French research institute Institut Pasteur found that the virus strain circulating locally in France is of unknown origin.

None of the imported COVID-19 cases in Russia was from China.

Singapore’s COVID-19 cases imported from China made up less than one tenth of those from other countries.

According to the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases, the novel coronavirus strain confirmed to be in Japan since early March was not from China.

After researching strains of novel coronavirus found in different patients, research institutes in the U.S. have reached the same conclusion - that these strains are highly similar to those of the novel coronavirus found in European visitors.

It’s indisputable that by making all-out efforts to fight COVID-19, China has not only ensured the health and safety of its people, but also contributed to global public health security.

The COVID-19 outbreak has presented a major challenge to the sense of responsibility and courage of countries, and also a major test of morality and conscience.

By adhering to the principle of putting people’s lives above everything, China has submitted an “answer sheet” that people around the world have marvelled at.