‘US leads world in pandemic failure’: Chinese report takes aim at American coronavirus response

Three Chinese think tanks publish paper stating the US was to blame for ‘currency abuse, pandemic turmoil … origin-tracing terrorism’

‘America Ranked First?!’: The Truth about America’s fight against Covid-19’ report appears hastily put together and containing errors and emotive language

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Unmasked people walked through the street in Midtown Manhattan in New York in July 2021. A report by three Chinese think tanks accuses the US of being the country with the worst pandemic management record in the world. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:00pm, 9 Aug 2021Updated: 11:03pm, 9 Aug 2021

A group of Chinese think tanks have accused the United States of being the worst in the world at handling the pandemic and revived Covid-19 origin conspiracy theories as Beijing tries to shift the focus of the hunt for the disease’s origins beyond China.

In a joint report released on Monday, the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University, the Taihe Institute and the Intellisia Institute said they aimed to reveal “the truth about America’s fight against Covid-19”.

The document draws mainly from reports and critiques in the US media to say the US was a “failed country” and a “suspected source of the outbreak”.

It concludes by renewing Chinese foreign ministry calls for an international investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in the US, linking it to the 2019 closure of a US military lab and to the white-tailed deer in Maryland.

Chongyang Institute director Wang Wen said he was angered by the US not accepting responsibility in the pandemic, adding that the report was “not meant to engage in a war of words with the US” but to reflect on past failings to gain lessons for future pandemic response.