The US is doing everything to make and spread lies about COVID-19

People visit the Lincoln Memorial at the National Mall in Washington D.C., the United States, on July 24, 2021. The current COVID-19 surge in the United States will steadily accelerate through this summer and fall, an article published by the U.S. non-profit media organization National Public Radio (NPR) has said. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

Fabricating and spreading lies, and manipulating media into hyping so-called "evidence" for "presumption of guilt" is a common practice for the White House to slander, tarnish and oppress other countries.

The impacts of the "two-man acts" staged by Washington and relevant media organizations, including the "washing powder" lie that triggered Iraq war and the fake video of "White Helmets" that started the crisis in Syria, are still lingering today, becoming an inescapable stain of the US that reminds the world of how dangerous American hegemony is.

Today, the US is once again employing the same old trick on the serious and scientific issue of origin tracing of COVID-19, trying to pass the buck and contain the development of China by demonizing and stigmatizing the country.

Is Washington planning to make another "washing powder" lie, or fake some other "White Helmets" videos? If so, then it will not bring a single change to Washington's failure in pandemic control, and only marks a serious underestimation of China's resolution, willpower and capability to safeguard its interests on its way to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Instead of finding a way to kill the coronavirus, the White House has never stopped making and spreading the political virus to achieve self-interest and contain China's development over the past year.

Calling COVID-19 the "China virus," the White House instigated US officials to put the blame on China. There was even a 57-page strategy document that taught US politicians to slander China with the pandemic. The US government made hypes of the so-called "lab leak theory," and launched a notorious intelligence operation to force the "lab leak" on China. It also resorted to "origin sourcing terrorism," coercing the WHO and some scientists to give up objectivity. As a result, the second stage of the origin tracing work is deviating from science-based principles.

The US, doing everything to make and spread lies, is just trampling on human civilization and the norms governing international relations.

Over the past year, there have been nearly 35 million infections and over 610,000 deaths in the US, and the country is always trapped in a cycle of "deterioration - alleviation - deterioration," which explains that making lies hurts not only others, but also the US itself.

The WHO outlined the importance of fighting infodemic as early as February the last year, as it believes rumors would harm the global efforts in fighting COVID-19. It also established a managing board for fighting infodemic.

The Lancet once published a joint statement by 27 top scientists in public health, expressing strong condemnation of the conspiracy theories about COVID-19. "Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus," the statement said.

In the past year, the political virus made by Washington has become a public enemy of the world. Deluded by the rumors fabricated by the US, Asian hate started in the country and other parts of the world, which was indicated by an increasing number of hate crimes committed against Asian people. Besides, it was because of the coercion from the US, the origin tracing work of the virus is not being advanced based on scientific principles, professionalism, or objectivity.

Peter Daszak, a member of a WHO expert team sent to China for COVID-19 origin tracing, said China is a victim of the so-called "lab leak theory." The Nature magazine said the US tone about the so-called "lab leak theory" is unsettling, and some toxic remarks might thwart efforts to study the origins of the virus.

Lies are always lies and are easily shattered by facts. In the first stage of the origin tracing work, China upheld principles of openness, transparency, science and cooperation, and did all it could to support the WHO expert team consisting of scientists from multiple countries and organize and coordinate relevant departments. The experts went to all the places they wanted to visit, and met all the people they wanted to see.

China has sufficient evidence indicating that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has never conducted the gain-of-function experiment on coronavirus, or artificially made the virus. Besides, no staff member or postgraduate student of the institute has contracted COVID-19, and there are not any traces of modification in the virus, which totally rules out the theory that it was man-made.

Because of such facts and confidence, China will not accept the second-phase origin tracing work which disrespects common sense and science and aims at tarnishing itself, before an investigation is carried out into the US, the hardest-hit country by COVID-19.

The US made lies about the pandemic to slander China, because some Americans are not willing to accept a growing China. Their practices once again showed how hegemonic the US is, and mirrored the ignorance of the US for the development trend of the world. It seems like that Washington has forgotten that it is facing the world's second largest economy that is resolute and competent to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and is committed to building a community with a shared future for mankind and providing new opportunities for the world with its own development. So far, there have been nearly 60 countries sending letters to the WHO in recognition of the conclusion reached in the first-phase origin tracing and opposing politicizing the origin tracing work. Besides, over 12 million Chinese people have signed an online petition in just days, requesting the WHO to launch an origin-tracing investigation into the US.

"You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." The rumors fabricated and spread by the US can neither blind the people nor cover the facts, and are destined to fail.

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People's Daily to express its views on China’s foreign policy and international affairs.)