Trump Baited by Reuters, but China Story Is Proven a British Empire Fake

April 30, 2020 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump, mistakenly granting an interview to the City of London’s Reuters news agency yesterday, was quoted by that old British outlet as baited further into the trap of extreme tension with China. Trump was quoted as saying that China wanted to prevent his re-election and had unleashed the novel coronavirus pandemic to stop him because of his toughness on economic relations.

The President is getting increasingly drawn by fake stories, and anti-China “intelligence reports” trumpeted by his nasty Secretary of State. One of the most brutishly circulated of those reports has been exposed, as both thoroughly imperial British, and totally false.

Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration, Shandong University Daniel A. Bell, wrote on his website on April 21-22 “Did the Chinese Government Deliberately Export COVID-19 to the Rest of the World?” in which he demonstrates three crucial things. First, very importantly, that the original source of this claim, on April 5 in the Sunday Times of London, was Niall Ferguson, a leading British liberal imperialist who is well known for writing proposals for the outright return of British Empire.

And moreover, that Ferguson’s claims there—that China allowed flights to leave Hubei and Wuhan for Russia, Europe, and America after Jan. 23, while blocking any flights to other parts of China—are completely false, disproven by Professor Bell’s careful research into air schedule records. And lastly, that after having to admit his claims were false, Ferguson has gone into a British imperialist’s attack mode against Bell as a China apologist, and so on.

Professor Bell’s investigation and steady correspondence with Ferguson about it are too detailed to summarize, but can be read rewardingly. His article was reprinted in Beijing Review on April 21 and as an opinion by CGTN on April 28.