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Will They Ever Learn? Chinese Markets Are Still Selling Bats and Slaughtering Rabbits on Blood-Soaked Floors as Beijing Celebrates ‘Victory’ Over the Coronavirus

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Terrified dogs and cats crammed into rusty cages. Bats and scorpions offered for sale as traditional medicine. Rabbits and ducks slaughtered and skinned side by side on a stone floor covered with blood, filth, and animal remains.

Those were the deeply troubling scenes yesterday as China celebrated its ‘victory’ over the coronavirus by reopening squalid meat markets of the type that started the pandemic three months ago, with no apparent attempt to raise hygiene standards to prevent a future outbreak.

As the pandemic that began in Wuhan forced countries worldwide to go into lockdown, a Mail on Sunday correspondent yesterday watched as thousands of customers flocked to a sprawling indoor market in Guilin, south-west China.

Here cages of different species were piled on top of each other. In another meat market in Dongguan, southern China, another correspondent photographed a medicine seller returning to business on Thursday with a billboard advertising bats – thought to be the cause of the initial Wuhan outbreak – along with scorpions and other creatures.

The shocking scenes came as China finally lifted a weekslong nationwide lockdown and encouraged people to go back to normal daily life to boost the flagging economy. Official statistics indicated there were virtually no new infections. (Read more from “Will They Ever Learn? Chinese Markets Are Still Selling Bats and Slaughtering Rabbits on Blood-Soaked Floors as Beijing Celebrates ‘Victory’ Over the Coronavirus” HERE)

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Trump Eyes Massive Expulsion of Suspected Chinese Spies

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Trump administration officials have intensified discussions over whether to expel employees of Chinese media outlets suspected of being spies, in retaliation for China’s planned expulsion of American journalists from major outlets, The New York Times reported.

Since the virus began spreading across the United States, Washington and Beijing have waged a global information war over the outbreak, the report said.

President Trump and his aides are trying to pin responsibility on China, where Communist Party officials initially covered up the dangers of the virus as it was first discovered. Trump, though, has been criticized for vast failures in the American response, the report said.

Some American intelligence officials have pushed for years to expel employees of Chinese media organizations who they say mainly file intelligence reports, the report said.

The officials now see an opening to make a strong case after Beijing abruptly announced this month that it would expel almost all American citizens who report from mainland China for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. (Read more from “Trump Eyes Massive Expulsion of Suspected Chinese Spies” HERE)

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WATCH: Massive Protest Breaks out in China’s Hubei Province, Ground Zero for the Coronavirus

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By Breitbart. A huge protest march swept out of China’s Hubei province on Friday, with thousands of angry residents pouring across a bridge into neighboring Jiangxi province and clashing with police. . .

The Hubei residents streaming across the bridge are clearly angry after weeks of the coronavirus lockdown, which in theory is being lifted as the Chinese government claims infections in Hubei have dropped to zero. Evidently the protesters are infuriated by how the government has treated them during the crisis – infuriated enough to flip over police cars and swarm past riot control barriers.

According to the “Things China Doesn’t Want You to Know” Twitter account quoted above, there are rumors the riot was kicked off by a fight between Hubei and Jiangxi police officers. The Hubei police were reportedly angered by Jiangxi police crossing into their jurisdiction. (Read more from “WATCH: Massive Protest Breaks out in China’s Hubei Province, Ground Zero for the Coronavirus” HERE)

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China Reports 54 New Cases, Says All of Them Are ‘Imported’

By CNBC. China’s National Health Commission reported 54 new cases of infection, all of which were “imported” as residents returned from abroad. Three new deaths were announced and all of them occurred in Hubei, where the coronavirus was first reported. . .

Altogether, China says it has had 81,394 confirmed cases thus far; among them, close to 75,000 patients have recovered and 3,295 died. Data from Johns Hopkins University showed both the United States and Italy have overtaken China in terms of the number of reported cases. (Read more from “China Reports 54 New Cases, Says All of Them Are ‘Imported'” HERE)

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Eighty Percent of Coronavirus Tests ‘Donated’ by China to Czechs Don’t Work; Same Problem in Spain

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By Washington Examiner. Some 80% of coronavirus rapid tests China donated to the Czech Republic as part of the communist country’s global goodwill effort are faulty, according to news reports.

A medical official from the Moravian-Silesian region that borders Slovakia and Poland said the test “error rate was quite high.”

According to the Czech radio site iROZHLAS, regional hygienist Pavla Svrcinova said that the tests give false positive and false negative results. She suggested that the tests only be used on people who are ending their virus-related seclusion and who have never been tested.

A government official, however, dismissed the concerns and said the “wrong methodology” was being used for the tests. “I don’t think it’s a scandalous revelation that it’s not working,” he said. (Read more from “Eighty Percent of Coronavirus Tests ‘Donated’ by China to Czechs Are Faulty” HERE)

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Chinese Coronavirus Tests in Spain Faulty, Too

By Sinéad Baker and Ruqayyah Moynihan. Microbiology experts in Spain have said that rapid coronavirus tests that the country bought from China are not consistently detecting positive cases.

The error was discovered as Spain is in the grip of one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the world, second only to Italy in the number of reported deaths.

Studies on the tests done in Spain found that they had only 30% sensitivity, meaning they correctly identify people with the virus only 30% of the time, sources told the Spanish newspaper El País.

Those sources told the newspaper that the tests should have a sensitivity of more than 80%. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says rapid tests for influenza are required to have 80% sensitivity. (Read more about the faulty Chinese coronavirus tests HERE)

Editor’s note: the Chinese communist government is claiming that the Spanish tests were not “donated” but were sold by an unauthorized Chinese company.

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State Department Responds After Chinese Ambassador Says It’s ‘Crazy’ to Blame Coronavirus on U.S. Military

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The State Department backed up China’s Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai for calling the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s coronavirus conspiracy that the U.S. Army was responsible for the virus’ outbreak in Wuhan a “crazy thing.”

“We welcome Ambassador Cui’s comments calling the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement a ‘crazy thing’ that blamed the U.S. Army for the #coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan,” tweeted State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. “Saving lives is more important than saving face.”

“There are people who are saying that these virus are coming from some military lab, not of China, maybe in the United States,” Cui said in an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” adding: “How — how can we believe all these crazy things?”

Cui called the idea “crazy” even before the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, began promoting the conspiracy.

But even after the idea that the U.S. military was responsible for the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan was state-sponsored, Cui stood by his comments, calling such an idea “crazy.” (Read more from “State Department Responds After Chinese Ambassador Says It’s ‘Crazy’ to Blame Coronavirus on U.S. Military” HERE)

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Chinese Propaganda Video Cites CNN, Democratic Politicians to Push Regime Narrative

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China’s state-run propaganda outlets are using coronavirus coverage by U.S. media and Democratic politicians to push the regime narrative that the Chinese government bears no responsibility for the ongoing pandemic and that sourcing the origin of the virus to Wuhan is politically motivated.

A video posted Monday by the Global Times, a tabloid run by the Communist Party of China, uses footage of numerous American media outlets and Democratic politicians to portray criticism of China’s handling of the coronavirus as racist. In addition to citing CNN’s Chris Cuomo and NBC’s Richard Engel, the video highlights tweets from two-time failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio parroting regime talking points.

“It is easy to scapegoat people, and that is what has always happened when there have been pandemics or epidemics,” Engel says in the clip featured in the video. “This is a virus that came from the territory of China but came from bats. This is a bat virus, not a China virus.”

In another video posted Sunday, Global Times editor in chief Hu Xijin highlights a CNN opinion piece by Chris Cillizza that argues President Donald Trump is “weaponizing bigotry” to shift blame away from his administration. After questioning the virus’s point of origin in Wuhan, Xijin cites Cillizza’s piece as evidence that Trump is using China as a political “scapegoat for his government’s slow response.”

(Read more from “Chinese Propaganda Video Cites CNN, Democratic Politicians to Push Regime Narrative” HERE)

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China Targeting U.S. Navy Warships With Electromagnetic Weapons

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China has called for using electromagnetic attacks on U.S. warships transiting the South China Sea, according to a state-run Chinese outlet.

The Communist Party-affiliated organ Global Times, quoting a military expert, said the use of nonlethal electromagnetic and laser weapons should be used by the People’s Liberation Army to expel American warships from the disputed sea.

The report followed China’s potentially dangerous use of a laser against a Navy P-8A maritime patrol aircraft near Guam last month, and an earlier lasing two years ago of C-130 aircraft near China’s military base in Djibouti on the coast of Africa.

The article was published Tuesday, the same day the Pacific Fleet announced on Twitter that the aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt, and the USS America, an amphibious assault carrier and leader of an expeditionary strike group, were conducting exercises in the South China Sea.

The training exercise for both strike groups included flight maneuvers, air defense tests and surface-support mission exercises, the fleet said in a report on the exercises. At one point, Marines carried out a simulated visit, board, search and seizure exercise on the guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill, according to the report. (Read more from “China Targeting U.S. Navy Warships With Electromagnetic Weapons” HERE)

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Putin Sides With China in War of Words With the U.S. Over COVID-19 Origins

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By PJ Media. Chinese propaganda has been a marvel these last few weeks. They have “bent the curve” of history and rewritten the narrative to make themselves out to be heroic saviors of the world. They pretend that their initial response to the coronavirus was superior to any other nation’s and besides, the virus was let loose upon China by someone else; it didn’t originate there.

Any thinking person knows it’s all a lie. But there are many who choose to play along with Chinese propaganda — especially if it gives them the chance to criticize America.

Count Russian President Vladimir Putin as an enthusiastic booster of China’s lies.

Washington Examiner:

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke with his Russian counterpart on the phone on Thursday, and “Putin commended the Chinese government for taking effective measures to not only contain the spread of the virus at home but also contribute to safeguarding the health and safety of people across the world,” according to a readout of the call Friday by China’s Foreign Ministry.

(Read more from “Putin Sides With China in War of Words With the U.S. Over COVID-19 Origins” HERE)

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Coronavirus Drives the U.S. and China Deeper Into Global Power Struggle

By New York Times. When President Trump took the podium at the White House briefing room one afternoon last week, his prepared remarks included a reference to the “corona virus.” But a close-up photograph revealed that Mr. Trump had used one of his signature Sharpies to cross out the word “corona,” changing the phrase to “Chinese virus.”

Mr. Trump was scathing as he accused Beijing of concealing the outbreak first detected in Wuhan that has become a pandemic now paralyzing the United States. “Certainly, the world is paying a big price for what they did,” he said. And the next day, he was joined at a White House briefing by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who accused China’s government of distorting vital health data and said its response “creates risk to people all around the world.”

The withering criticism is an abrupt change in tone for a president who has long sought to stay on friendly terms with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and who initially praised Mr. Xi’s government for “doing a very professional job” against the epidemic. But as Mr. Trump and top American officials toughen their condemnations of Mr. Xi’s government, national security and public health experts fear that the two world powers are heading into a new Cold War that could seriously undermine joint efforts to quash the virus and salvage the global economy. (Read more from “Coronavirus Drives the U.S. and China Deeper Into Global Power Struggle” HERE)

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China Allegedly Destroyed Evidence of Wuhan Coronavirus in December; How China Can Be Held Legally Accountable for Coronavirus Pandemic; Report Claims China Is Faking Its Recovery

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By Legal Insurrection. My daily update must start with the revelation by an independent, investigative journalism team at Caixin Global.

The team discovered that Chinese scientists destroyed proof of research involving the novel coronavirus that is now spreading at pandemic levels.

An article published by the Times of London indicates that Chinese authorities have been deleting the stories from the internet.

Chinese laboratories identified a mystery virus as a highly infectious new pathogen by late December last year, but they were ordered to stop tests, destroy samples and suppress the news, a Chinese media outlet has revealed.

A regional health official in Wuhan, centre of the outbreak, demanded the destruction of the lab samples that established the cause of unexplained viral pneumonia on January 1. China did not acknowledge there was human-to-human transmission until more than three weeks later.

(Read more from “Report: China Destroyed Evidence of Wuhan Coronavirus in December” HERE)

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How China Can Be Held Legally Accountable for Coronavirus Pandemic

By Fox News. A cover-up and clampdown by the Chinese government in the early weeks of the coronavirus’s emergence is raising questions over whether the communist superpower can be held legally accountable.

“Generally countries like China have sovereign immunity and governments cannot be brought to regular courts or held liable regardless of their conduct,” Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an Israel-based attorney who has long specialized in suing terrorist regimes and state sponsors who orchestrate human rights abuses on behalf of victims, told Fox News.

“However, an argument could be made that just like support for terrorism, which is legally actionable, a government that engages in such reckless disregard and negligence and covers up an epidemic which has the potential to spread worldwide could be held legally liable ,” Darshan-Leitner said. “Cover-ups and deliberate acts to conceal a deadly medical crisis are not [among] the protected acts of a sovereign state or of responsible leaders.”

According to Darshan-Leitner, if a private party like a hospital or health care worker of a chemical company had learned of a dangerous and highly contagious disease and then deliberately covered its existence up and concealed it from the public they would clearly face criminal and civil liability.

“Why should a local or national government be any different? Clearly, China signed treaties and had a duty under international law to report the virus and not cover it up,” she continued. “China is not to blame for creating the virus but for not sounding the international alarm and trying to conceal it from the world.” (Read more from “How China Can Be Held Legally Accountable for Coronavirus Pandemic” HERE)

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Report Claims China Is Faking Its Recovery From the Coronavirus Outbreak

By The Blaze. . .Those reports are being disputed by local Chinese officials who say the government is using deceptive measures to create the appearance of normal business operations and productivity, according to the Chinese media outlet Caixin.

Back to normal? For the first time since the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, was discovered, China has reported no new infections. For the past couple of days, the number of new reported deaths has been in the single digits.

As a result, some of the businesses in China that were forced to shut down have begun reopening, and some travel restrictions have been lifted (although that is creating some new issues, including a fear of imported COVID-19 cases).

Not what it seems: Although the Chinese government, well-known for concealing or manipulating information, would obviously prefer the world seeing signs of strength and recovery, that might not be the case. Chinese whistleblowers tell Caixin they’re working to create an appearance that things are back to normal when they’re not[.] (Read more from “Report Claims China Is Faking Its Recovery From the Coronavirus Outbreak” HERE)

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WATCH: Dr. Fauci Credits President Trump’s China Travel Ban — Opposed by Joe Biden — With Preventing Italy’s Disaster in U.S.

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By The Blaze. When President Donald Trump announced travel restrictions on China to prevent travelers from infecting Americans with the coronavirus, former Vice President Joe Biden blasted the decision as “hysterical xenophobia” at a campaign rally.

But now one of the country’s leading experts on the illness, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says the president’s travel restriction likely prevented a humanitarian crisis in the United States on the scale of the one that Italy is facing. . .

During an interview on MSNBC, anchor Lester Holt asked the world-renowned immunologist if there were demographic differences between the United States and Italy, which is now considered the hardest hit nation by the pandemic, which may result in different outcomes for the two countries.

Without hesitating, Fauci credited President Trump’s Jan. 31 executive order suspending travel from China, where the virus originated, with preventing an Italian-level crisis in America.

(Read more from “WATCH: Dr. Fauci Credits President Trump’s China Travel Ban — Opposed by Joe Biden — With Preventing Italy’s Disaster in U.S.” HERE)

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Democracy 2020 Digest: Biden, Blasting Trump, Vows Dueling Daily Briefing During Coronavirus Crisis

By Fox News. Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday slammed President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, urging the Republican incumbent to “stop swerving between overpromising, buck-passing, and start delivering protection to our people.”

The all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee – in a conference call with political reporters – also said that as early as Monday he hopes to be holding near-daily briefings regarding the pandemic that’s swept across the nation, which could serve as a political counterbalance to the daily briefings the president and government officials have been giving the past week from the White House.

“I want to be in daily or least in significant contact with the American people and communicate what I would be doing, what I think we should be doing, and how we should be doing it,” Biden emphasized.

“Hopefully by Monday we’re going to be in a very different place in terms of the ability to be in communications with all of you,” Biden explained.

The president’s reelection team – responding to Biden – defended the president’s actions, with campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh saying that Trump “is leading an unprecedented mobilization of America against the coronavirus and all Joe Biden can offer is ineffective partisan sniping from the sidelines.” (Read more from “Democracy 2020 Digest: Biden, Blasting Trump, Vows Dueling Daily Briefing During Coronavirus Crisis” HERE)

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