China deflects COVID origin blame with propaganda again; blames America

China has redsorted to all sorts of propaganda techniques to shift the blame for the origin of the COVID-19 using different conspiracy theories such as political statements, state-run news media, social media and other rap songs. The latest conspiracy theory story has blamed lobsters from the United States as the origin of the Coronavirus that started spreading in the Asian country in late 2019.

A news article has claimed that a cargo containing 55 boxes of Boston lobsters that reached Shanghai on November 11, 2019 might be responsible for the origin of COVID-19.

The HK Post reported that a news portal named Sina has said that the traceability of Coronavirus is indicated at the cold chain of the US seafood products. The article then further added, "Therefore, it is entirely possible for the virus to attach to the cold chain packaging pi this batch of seafood products in the United States and enter the South China seafood market." 

The latest propaganda campaign in China came on the backdrop of Beijing continuously denying that the Coronavirus leaked from the laboratory in Wuhan.

Earlier in November 2020, China had even claimed that the novel coronavirus was found on the shrimps from Saudi Arabia. To further push the baseless theory, China had suspended beef imports from Brazil. Chinese state media Global Times had also said that the Brazilian beef sent to the Wuhan market was found with active coronavirus. The animal market in china's Wuhan is also one of the earliest known clusters of COVID-19 in the country, where the pandemic originated.

China’s state media is ‘pushing’ the theories: Researcher

China’s state media is touting the theory of coronavirus spreading because of Brazilian beef, Saudi shrimps and Maine lobsters, according to the researcher who studied hundreds of accounts with pro-China agenda. Researcher Marcel Schliebs, while writing for international think tank Policy Research Group (POREG), has identified "hundreds of accounts affiliated with pro-China agenda-pushing forward the theory of exported cold meats being a reason for the spread of coronavirus."

"The Chinese state media seems interested in proving that beef from Brazil, shrimp from Saudi Arabia and pork from the USA are the reason coronavirus is spreading," stated POREG’s 'China watcher'.

The report, published on the official website, has stated that the latest edition of such claims by China has stated that lobsters from Maine are the sole reason behind the drastic spread of coronavirus, which was first detected in the country in late 2019 before engulfing the entire world in chaos.

Notably, Schliebs analysed the Twitter feed of several pro-China accounts for nearly 18 months and derived that the 'Maine lobster theory' was pushed by Chinese diplomat Zha Liyou, who is posted to the Kolkata consulate.

(IMAGE: AP/Pixabay)