After the US Secretary of State called nCoV the "Wuhan virus," the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman angrily accused the US military of bringing the disease to the city.

The debate erupted after China sought to deflect criticism that it was the origin of Covid-19, while promoting the image of a country that took decisive steps, accept to put tens of millions of people within the blockade to give the world more time to deal with the disease.

As the number of new infections declines sharply in mainland China and increases in other countries, especially in Europe and the US, Beijing "triumphal track" and seeks to refute the claims that Vu Han is the origin of nCoV.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhao Lian Kien wrote on Twitter on March 12 that "it is likely that the US military has brought nCoV to Wuhan", although there was no evidence. He tried to strengthen his position by linking an article on February 13 from the website that posted conspiracy theories about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Instead of removing "rumors", China's strict censorship mechanism has allowed social media users to spread similar conspiracy theories about the US behind the nCoV outbreak.

One video, in which US health officials say that some flu patients were diagnosed with nCoV after death, was in the top of China's Chinese Weibo search this week and many internet users said it was Covid-19 syndrome originated in the US. Spokesperson Trieu Lap Kien also posted the video on Twitter.

Duong Thai Loi, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, said he believes that Zhao posts articles and videos on his Twitter account "officially".

According to Yang, China's goal in promoting this conspiracy theory is to "divert domestic indignation" to the outside in response to Covid-19, causing more than 3,100 deaths in the country.

The spreading of skepticism about the origins of Covid-19 contradicts China's own initial assessment. Gao Fu, director of the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in January that "we know the virus is from an animal sold in a seafood market in Wuhan."

Chinese officials see Wuhan and the rest of Hubei province as a threat when they decide to block 56 million people in the area to stop the outbreak.

But by the end of February, Beijing had begun to be skeptical of the statement, when professor Chung Nam Son, a leading expert of the National Health Commission, told reporters that "the outbreak was first seen in China." but that doesn't mean it starts here. "

However, scientists have long stated that nCoV is transmitted from animals to humans at the Wuhan South China Seafood Market before spreading globally.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that while there is no clear evidence that the virus is transmitted from animals to humans, Covid-19 remains a "never-before-known" disease before its onset in Wuhan. December 2019 ".

Christl Donnelly, professor of epidemiological statistics at Imperial College London, said the results of an analysis of the viral gene samples collected worldwide showed that it shared a "ancestor" with the virus in China, but She said that does not mean "blaming any particular country" for the appearance of nCoV.

Meanwhile, the United States has angered China by calling out the virus name associated with its origin in China. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the nCoV the "Wuhan virus", prompting China's Foreign Ministry to react harshly, saying the term was "hateful" and "disrespectful to science".

Despite opposition from Beijing, US President Donald Trump began a televised speech on March 11 by saying Covid-19 "originated in China".

WHO has warned against naming diseases, opposing names that cause discrimination or discrimination against certain ethnic groups.

Researcher Yun Jiang of the Australian National University said that the Trump administration's deliberate emphasis on Chinese-origin viruses is part of his "sticking the nose" strategy to attack Beijing.

US National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien on March 11 also emphasized nCoV originated from Wuhan. He criticized the Beijing government for its lack of cooperation and concealment, which made the "world waste two months to cope".

Beijing immediately voiced that the US accusation was "immoral and irresponsible."

China's opposition has even increased to the point of criticizing anyone who claims that nCoV originates from the country. Trieu Lap Kien said last week that journalists using the term "Chinese virus" are "referring to the origin of the virus without any evidence or data proving it" and having "an impure motive". ".

"By spreading skepticism into people's minds about the origin of the virus, China seems to be trying to distract public opinion about the outbreak," Yun Jiang said.