Beijing & COVID-19: a Russian Connection?

With the People’s Republic of China (PRC) facing another major COVID-19 outbreak, there has been quite a lot of government-endorsed propaganda in circulation among the Chinese general public. One such highly suspicious piece of information could be the claim that these recent outbreaks (including the one in Beijing) originated from Europe.

It should be noted that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doing everything in it’s power (allegedly) to deny the existence of community transmission in mainland China, disputing the origin points of various outbreaks and frequently downplaying the effects of the COVID-19 infection. They allegedly went as far as to underreport the number of positively identified COVID-19 cases and regurally questioning some of the basic facts when it suits their political interests.

A few weeks back, the Chinese state media ran a “news” story which claimed that the outbreaks in the north-eastern provinces (independent of the Beijing outbreak) originated from “infected individuals” returning from Russia who imported the virus and came in contact with Chinese nationals who happen to reside in these regions. It should be noted that an official narrative was put forward by the Chinese equivalent of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to explain the recent Beijing outbreak claiming that this recent COVID-19 outbreak originated from “contaminated” frozen salmon imported from northern Europe (possibly from Scandinavia or western Russia) and sold in the Xinfadi Market located in Beijing. Additionally, the “Russian” origin story for the north-eastern outbreaks has no supporting evidence at all, and the imported salmon origin story for the Beijing outbreak has only circumstantial evidence at best.

All this information implies a possible attempt by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to shift blame for the Beijing outbreak (and other ongoing COVID-19 outbreaks) onto a European nation(s). It should be noted that the Chinese regime has frequently tried (and often failed) to shift blame for coronavirus-related issues onto other nations whenever it suited their political needs.