By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

As countries across the globe try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, China has been active in spreading a disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the origin and Beijing’s own egregious malfeasance for the spread of the virus.

The Chinese government has systematically been flooding the media with false propaganda that the origins of COVID-19 were the result of a U.S. bioweapon brought to China by U.S. army personnel. Beijing is using this to tarnish America’s global image on the international stage and hamper President Trump’s reelection efforts.

Slowly we are beginning to see the duplicity of the Chinese’s government’s response to the coronavirus as the South Morning China Post reviewed government records showing the first case identified came from a 55-year-old individual back on Nov. 17, 2019 located in Hubei province, which Wuhan is the capital city.  This was a month earlier then Chinese officials had earlier reported.

China Falsely Reports when the Coronavirus Began  

Chinese authorities in Beijing first reported the virus began at the end of December 2019, this emanated from a contaminated meat source that was sold or consumed at a wet market in Wuhan.  A wet market is used for selling meat, fish, produce and other perishable goods, that are not durable goods.

Chinese wet markets traditionally have poor sanitation and are not properly maintained or regulated for health standards to protect and prevent the spread of diseases from contaminated animals which come into direct contact with the people who work in extreme close proximity to those sold at these markets.

These wet markets often have deplorable living conditions for the animals sold, as the animals are placed in cages stacked on top of each other from which bodily fluids and other liquids flow through in despicable unsanitary conditions that form the very breeding ground for these types of virus.

The Origins of the Coronavirus

Many scientists have suspected that the coronavirus originated in a bat, which was then passed to another animal, most likely a pangolin a scaly anteater which the animals scales and blood are used by the Chinese people for traditional medicine. The pangolin likely made human contact, which began the animal to human contact, but now the coronavirus is spreading between people without any animal contact.

Early in the pandemic, some of the earliest cases reported had no connection to any animal at the wet market, with one of the first cases caming from an individual on Dec 1, 2019, but wasn’t known until researchers reported it in a British Medical Journal the Lancet on Jan 20th 2020.

China Again fails again to Notify World of Epidemic like Virus

Back in 2002-03 a similar respiratory disease called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) similar in scope and nature to COVID-19 originated in China which traced its origins to bats in Yunnan province, again this is likely how the coronavirus started.

Each month beginning in November and into December infections began to grow, and on Dec. 27th Dr. Zhang Jixian, head of the respiratory department at Hubei Provincial Hospital reported to Chinese health officials about a new coronavirus that was spreading.

Chinese Medical Professionals Punished for Speaking out

As the virus was spreading in Wuhan, its epicenter, the police punished Li Wenliang a Chinese ophthalmologist and a physician at Wuhan Central Hospital, who along with a group of other doctors spoke out with regard to the disease that was spreading at epidemic proportions; these doctors also shared their concerns on social media, drawing the ire of Communist government officials.

This drew the attention of the state police who condemned the doctors for sharing information about the virus, as they were physically forced to sign a statement agreeing not to commit additional “law-breaking actions,” tragically Li would die from the very disease that he tried to warn the public about.

This was the same approach the Chinese Communist Party took that prevented hospital executives from alerting their own workers about the spread of the disease, if the executives continued to speak out; it would be tantamount to “spreading rumours.”

Various medical professionals in Wuhan knew back in December that the disease can spread through human-to-human transmission, finally as the virus spread rapidly these very health executives had no choice but to speak out, but leaders in the Communist Party still remained silent until January 9th days after the Wall Street Journal published its first report on the situation in Wuhan.

Chinese Medical Leadership Downplay Seriousness of Virus

By now many medical workers were falling victim to the coronavirus, but  Chinese officials for weeks were still downplaying the severity of the coronavirus epidemic even with Li Qun the head of China’s Center for Dieses Control emergency center stating on Chinese state television,  “After careful screening and prudent judgment, we have reached the latest understanding that the risk of human-to-human transmission is low.”

Other healthcare professionals had begun sounding the alarm including two nurses who sent a letter to the British medical journal the “Lancet” highlighting the deplorable conditions at a Wuhan isolation ward who were suffering from lack of equipment and other serious medical deficiencies.  Government officials then forced the nurses to retract their letter soon after it was published.

The Times of London, reported that Chinese doctors in early December had identified a pathogen but the China’s National Health Commission issued a gag order to stop tests, destroy samples and suppress the news, as reported by Chinese media outlet.

On Jan 14th, the World Health Organization (WHO) repeated the claims of the Chinese leadership by tweeting, “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.”

As the epidemic continued to grow out of control Beijing made the situation catastrophically worse not only for China but the entire globe’s physical health and economic viability, possibly forcing a virus-induced global recession.

President Xi Jinping knew of Virus

Reports have circulated that Chinese President Xi Jinping ordered officials to contain the virus two weeks earlier than had been repeatedly been known, this seems to contradict the argument that local officials were to blame for the epidemics spread.

The official Communist party magazine “Qiushi’s” version states that XI held a meeting in mid-January with the party’s politburo standing committee, which is the nation’s largest deliberative body consisting of the top leadership of the Communist Party in China.

With all this information available the government still went ahead with a banquet for 40,000 families in Wuhan, the epicenter for the virus.  Officials from Hubei province convened this annual event all the while downplaying the seriousness of the disease, and simultaneously disseminating that no evidence suggested it could spread between human to human contacts.

This banquet was allowed to proceed were thousands of individual families were allowed to share food with each other, and a duplicitous Chinese government allowed millions to travel outside of Wuhan to other countries which allowed the coronavirus to spread further, it wasn’t until Jan. 23 that China decided to quarantine Wuhan.

China Allows Millions to Fly Further Spreading the Virus

It seems that the Chinese leadership in Beijing was more concerned about not disrupting its most important event in China, the celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year, as this year the festivities took place between January 10th to February 18, where upwards of 3 billion people made this trip, with many coming from outside the country to visit family.

Military historian at the Hoover Institute Victor David Hanson asked an interesting question regarding individuals traveling from China;

  • What is best estimation of how many arrived in the U.S. from China, from say mid-or late-November to February 1–2, 2020, and in terms of epidemiology, albeit relying in part on Chinese data, what are the parameters of numbers of likely positive carriers and the ripples from arriving population? What is the best estimation of the number of Chinese nationals who were unable to return home after the flight ban, or who arrived via temporary stop-overs in European cities after the flight ban?

We still don’t have a clear answer to this crucial question.

This lack of transparency by China is disheartening at the very least, and this coming after the U.S. offered experts from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) along with the World Health Organization (WHO) who offered assistance early in the crisis, only to be rebuffed by Beijing.

Virus allowed by China to go Global

Beijing has to be asked very difficult questions, such as after knowing early on of a pandemic like virus why China still allowed infected people to fly to other parts of the globe.  By allowing infected individuals to travel it brought the coronavirus to the shores of America, which severely impacted the states of Washington, New York, and California which all of have sizable Asian populations.  Each of the major metropolitan cities in these states from Seattle, Los Angles, San Francisco and New York City which all have direct flights to and from Wuhan, China.

This should not just be the United States against China, but the world community should also enraged over this, especially Iran, Italy and South Korea who have been hit the hardest, as each of these countries like the United States also have direct flights to Wuhan from Rome, Milan, Tehran, and Seoul.

All these countries have sizable expatriates and China either directly or indirectly knew that millions of individuals were potentially infected and they still allowed these individuals to travel thus exposing millions to the virus and causing the deaths of over 16,000 people and potentially sending the world into a recession.

Trump Issues Travel Ban

A controversial decision by President Trump on Jan 31, 2020 saved countless lives when he issued a travel ban on foreign nationals who would be denied entry into the U.S. if they had traveled to China in past 14 days.  Once this travel ban went into effect many medical experts supported this decision and mentioned the lives saved and further preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Early this month the Trump administration extended the travel ban to now include Europe, as we have learned the Europeans failed to issue their own travel ban further continuing the spread of the coronavirus, as we have later learned new cases in the U.S. came from individuals traveling from Europe.

Democrats Criticize President’s Travel Ban

The travel ban debate factored into the 2020 presidential campaign with former Vice President Joe Biden stating, “This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia, hysterical xenophobia, to uh, and fearmongering.” As he wouldn’t support a travel ban and would have listened to the academic experts opposing such a policy even though medical experts have stated this was right decision.

Democratic lawmakers have raised similar concerns with Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted out on March 17th, “I’ve said it once & I’ll say it again loud enough for the @WhiteHouse, @FoxNews, & everyone else to hear: coronavirus does not discriminate. Bigotry against people of Asian descent is unacceptable, un-American, & harmful to our COVID-19 response efforts.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton jumped into the fray by denouncing Trump’s language, “The president is turning to racist rhetoric to distract from his failures to take the coronavirus seriously early on, make tests widely available, and adequately prepare the country for a period of crisis.

Don’t fall for it. Don’t let your friends and family fall for it.”

This contradicts Director Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has stated, “The president’s decision to essentially have a major blocking of travel from China, that already had an effect of not seeding the way, in Europe — Italy didn’t do that.”

China Expels Western Journalists, Everyone Remains Silent  

With the world community now reeling from the coronavirus, with over 16,000 now having perished from the coronavirus, China has begun ramping up its propaganda machine in blaming the U.S., and just this week Beijing expelled dozens of U.S. journalist from the country.  The Communist Party of China expelled reporters from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the New York Times as they stated the journalists from these media affiliates are agents of the U.S. government. Like the New York Times and the Washington Post would ever be working for the Trump administration is just laughable, the sole reason they were sent packing is that these journalist were reporting negatively on China.

With the expulsion of these journalists, were is the outrage from the media, or anyone else, it was only last fall were various media affiliates, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and others condemned President Trump’s rhetoric toward China, now the language is eerily silent.

Western media seem to naively follow the talking points provided by the Chinese Communist Party by admitting China’s role but then transitioning into somehow blaming the west especially the United States for failing to act sooner. Remember when Trump issued his travel ban the media mercilessly attacked him as being xenophobic and racist, in retrospect this action prevent thousands of infected individuals from reaching the United States.

Even now media affiliates across the country have taken at face value the Chinese Ministry of Health assurances that they have now reported no new cases of the coronavirus, what assurances do we have that this is accurate?

This is the same communist state party health agency that reported that there was no virus, it wasn’t transmitted from animal to human, there was no transmission from human to human, and the virus was contained.  This was the same health agency which new about the virus then acted in conjunction with a duplicitous Chinese government which allowed millions to fly back to their home of origin thus spreading the disease further.

Why trust China? The time is now for the World to hold China responsible for this epidemic, and this cannot just be the United States to stand up to Beijing as the entire world with one voice must hold Beijing responsible or this will only happen again! Oh wait this is the second time a virus originated from China are we going to wait for a third one!