DISINFO: Coronavirus may be the latest step in NATO’s containment strategy against China
SUMMARY
It may be not coincidental that the coronavirus pandemic exploded in China right after the US tried every measure to end with the Chinese: a tariff war, blocking Huawei from 5G platforms, promulgating a so-called “law on Human Rights and Democracy” in support of demonstrators who were calling for Hong Kong’s independence, and pressing NATO to declare China as a threat. NATO is preparing to expand itself towards the Pacific to surround China, following the Containment Theory.
RESPONSE
Conspiracy theory, with no evidence provided to support it. Though debates on the convenience of expanding NATO to Pacific and Asian countries are a reality, there is no proof that any concrete step has been already taken in this direction, contrary to the claims. Suggestions that the Covid-19 outbreak may be some kind of tool in the US strategic competition with China are part of Russia’s disinformation campaign on coronavirus, mixed with a recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about alleged Western efforts to encircle both Russia and China. This campaign has been well documented by both media and governments, and some of its elements were widely reported by Russian and international publications and by the European External Action Service. EUvsDisinfo database has a long set of Kremlin-linked disinformation cases on this subject, such as claims that Bill Gates and George Soros are sponsoring the Wuhan coronavirus, that it is a UK, US or NATO creation and Americans have its cure, that it is an artificial disease which specifically targets Chinese DNA, that it is a pretext to gain control of the world’s population, that it was created with economic goals while big pharma companies are spreading panic for their own profits, that it is a biological weapon against Russia and China, that it will wipe out Ukraine’s population in a few days or that it was predicted by Nostradamus and others. This disinformation message appeared in the same article as the claim that “Some in the US want to prevent China from explaining its efforts to deliver aid against Covid-19”.