A news agency citing people familiar with an internal Chinese report says the communist regime is being warned it could face Tiananmen-like backlash over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic that has been linked Wuhan, possibly a virology laboratory there.
And the report warns the communist nation needs to be prepared for “armed conflict.”
Hundreds of thousands of people around the globe have died after being infected by the coronavirus, after China apparently concealed early details about the threat, and even hoarded personal protective equipment for health-care responders.
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Reuters is reporting that the internal report is warning Beijing of a rising tide of hostility that “could tip relations with the United States into confrontation.”
The report was given last month to President Xi Jingping and other top leaders. It was assembled by the ministry of state security.
And it “concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said,” according to the Reuters report.
People familiar with the document told the news agency that it warns Beijing “needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers.”
Reuters confirmed it has not seen the briefing, and got its details from those who “had direct knowledge of its findings.”
It was from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, an associate of the ministry of state security.
Officially, a statement from the Chinese foreign ministry said, “I don’t have relevant information.”
“Reuters couldn’t determine to what extent the stark assessment described in the paper reflects positions held by China’s state leaders, and to what extent, if at all, it would influence policy. But the presentation of the report shows how seriously Beijing takes the threat of a building backlash that could threaten what China sees as its strategic investments overseas and its view of its security standing,” the report said.
But Reuters described relations between China and the U.S. right now as “at their worst point in decades, with deepening mistrust and friction points from U.S. allegations of unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.”
President Trump has revealed he is considering retaliatory measures against China over coronavirus and its death toll and financial burden on the United States.
“The report described to Reuters warned that anti-China sentiment sparked by the coronavirus could fuel resistance to China’s Belt and Road infrastructure investment projects, and that Washington could step up financial and military support for regional allies, making the security situation in Asia more volatile,” the agency reported.
There have been accusations in the international community that China withheld early information on coronavirus after it first was found in Wuhan, and the result is that other nations did not have the same notice, and time for preparation, that they might have had.
In fact, China has officially suggested the virus was made in America and then carried to China, where it first was found.
A commentary at ZeroHedge noted that the report “suggests that the wave of anti-China sentiment is led by the United States, which sees China’s rise as a global superpower as a threat to Western democracies.”
It continued, “China’s early coverup of the outbreak – including silencing and/or disappearing whistleblowing doctors and journalists, lying about the transmissibility of the virus while hoarding personal protective equipment (PPE), quarantining Wuhan domestically while allowing international travel, and using the World Health Organization to run cover – has drawn global scorn as COVID has infected over 3.5 million and killed nearly 250,000 in five months.”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has confirmed that the president is considering options to impose penalties on China.
