China makes cartoon taunting US for ignoring coronavirus threat its government ‘lied about’

The shocking propaganda cartoon sees China's communist government present itself as a model of propriety

China’s state news agency has released a cartoon goading the United States for ignoring the threat of Covid-19 its communist leaders reportedly lied about. The ‘Once upon a virus’ propaganda, shared by the government-controlled Xinhua news agency, sees a Lego-like terracotta warrior reporting pneumonia-like illnesses to the World Health Organization in December 2018.

A month later, the face mask-wearing warrior tell the Statue of Liberty ‘We discovered a new virus.’ The New York statue’s likeness replies: ‘So what? It’s only a flu.’ The warrior insists that Covid-19 is ‘dangerous’ and that its US counterpart should ‘wear a mask.’

It also instructs the statue to ‘stay at home,’ only for the squeaky-voiced New York icon to answer: ‘It’s violating human rights.’ China also mocks the US for branding its draconian lockdown of the city of Wuhan – where Covid-19 originated – as ‘barbaric.’

The 90 second clip continues with China’s warrior figure parroting repeated warnings, with the statue repeating lines similar to those said by Donald Trump earlier in the crisis, at one point squeaking: ‘It will magically go away in April.’ China’s figure also insists ‘We made everything public’ when accused of lying by the US statue, despite emerging reports that the country’s communist government engaged in a huge cover-up. The green copper statue’s face reddens with fury as the pandemic grips the US in March and April, as it angrily accuses China of lying about its death toll.

The soldier insists his country has been truthful throughout, then makes a dig at Donald Trump’s contradictions on the pandemic, finishing with ‘That’s what I love about you Americans…your consistency.’

China – which has a population of 1.4billion – is widely believed to have lied about only diagnosing 88,000 cases of Covid-19, and claiming that just over 4,000 people had been killed by the new disease. The United States, with a population of 330 million, has so-far seen more than 1.1million diagnoses and over 66,000 deaths.

A leaked intelligence report penned by spies from the US, UK, Canada and Australia claims China knew Covid-19 was transmitted between humans for around a month before telling anyone else. China is also accused of deep-cleaning the Wuhan Institute of Virology to cover up evidence of a virus leak.

Covid-19 is rumored to have leaked from the facility accidentally after coronavirus experiments were performed on bats. Multiple medical whistleblowers who spoke out about the threat of coronavirus have since vanished, amid reports they are being held in state custody.

Donald Trump said Thursday that he finds those reports credible, and has accused China of trying to derail his November re-election bid. The president has faced questions over his own downplaying of the outbreak throughout February, when he claimed Covid-19 would ‘wash through’ the US and cause minimal disruption.