China's startling COVID-19 claim about Australia
Chinese authorities are claiming that the COVID-19 outbreak started overseas instead of in Wuhan, with one state media outlet suggesting it might have arrived via imported frozen food from countries including Australia.
A furious article in The Global Times over the weekend suggested that Western countries had attempted to "shift the narrative from their own shortcomings" by blaming Wuhan for the initial starting point of the virus.
“As the mounting sporadic outbreaks in China were found to be related to imported cold-chain products, with other parts of the world, including Europe and the American continent, reportedly discovering signs of the coronavirus earlier than Wuhan, it begs a new hypothesis – did the early outbreak in Wuhan originate from imported frozen food?” the publication wrote.
After worldwide outrage over its handling of the initial outbreak, China has pushed theories that the virus started overseas and arrived on frozen food packaging, including chicken wings from Brazil, squid from Russia, shrimp from Ecuador and salmon from Norway.
The World Health Organisation has said that there is no evidence of the virus being transmitted this way.
“More and more evidence suggests that the frozen seafood or meat products probably spread the virus from countries with the epidemic into our country,” Chinese epidemiologist Wu Zunyou said in a recent interview posted on government website, The New York Times reported.
The paper said the Wuhan market used to sell “imported cold-chain seafood, such as king crab and arctic shellfish, as well as meat products from Brazil and Germany”.
“The city also imported Australian steak, Chilean cherries and Ecuadorean seafood before 2019, according to the information from the website of the city’s commerce bureau,” the Global Times wrote.
“Statements published by the Hubei Provincial Commerce Department show in 2018 and 2019, foreign trade enterprises have imported meat from Canada, Brazil and Spain.”
The article says that due to an increase in frozen product imports compared to last year could be to blame for bringing the virus into Wuhan.
“The idea never crossed our minds before, but now it seems plausible that the virus may have been imported to Wuhan via imported cold-chain products,” Wuhan University disease researcher Yang Zhanqiu told the Global Times.