State-run China Daily newspaper censors opinion article by European Union ambassadors
- The US has been putting pressure on Beijing to reveal the origin of the virus
- The top Chinese diplomat overseeing operations at the World Health Organisation rejects the idea of arranging an international investigation mission to Wuhan
China has censored an opinion article in a state-run newspaper co-authored by all European Union ambassadors in Beijing, removing a mention insinuating China as the origin of the coronavirus, the EU confirmed on Wednesday.
This comes as the top Chinese diplomat overseeing operations at the World Health Organisation rejected the idea of arranging an international investigation mission to Wuhan, the city where the first outbreak occurred last year.
The US has been putting pressure on Beijing to reveal the origin of the virus, and China has repeatedly pushed back, accusing Washington of pursuing a political agenda rather than a scientific one.
The European Union has been leading efforts to draft a resolution for the upcoming World Health Assembly at the WHO, though the Post understands that it faces opposition from China over the inclusion of origin in a probe that the resolution is expected to call for.
The latest incident, over the China Daily article published on Wednesday, follows simmering tension between the EU and China over the latter’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Co-signed by the EU Ambassador to China Nicolas Chapuis and the 27 member states’ counterparts in Beijing, the article was initially barred from publication due to the Chinese foreign ministry’s objection, the EU said.
In question were the words: “But the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world over the past three months, has meant that our pre-existing plans have been temporarily side-tracked.”
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The EU decided to allow a version to be printed in English without these words, while China Daily did not print the piece in Chinese as promised, according to a source familiar with the matter.
“The EU delegation to China was informed that the publication could only take place with the agreement of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” Virginie Battu-Henriksson, EU spokeswoman on foreign affairs, said in an emailed reply.
“The EU delegation to China made known its concerns to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in no uncertain terms, both on the process and on the request to remove part of a sentence related to the origins and spread of coronavirus to allow publication,” Battu-Henriksson said.
The EU diplomats decided to proceed with the publication “with considerable reluctance”, she said, so that the article, titled “EU-China ties vital amid global crisis”, could coincide with the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the EU and China.
“We regret that the [article] was not published in full by the China Daily,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats in Geneva, where the WHO is based, have doubled down effort to try to put off attempts to call for an investigation tour in Wuhan, diplomatic sources said.
The ambassador to United Nations Geneva, Chen Xu, told reporters on Wednesday that China will not invite international experts to investigate the source of Covid-19 until the “final victory” against the virus has been secured.
China’s priority is first beating the pandemic – and countering the “absurd and ridiculous” politicisation of the new coronavirus, Chen said.
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The World Health Organisation says it is waiting on an invitation from China to take part in its investigations into the animal origins of the virus, first reported in the city of Wuhan in December.
Asked when the WHO could expect an invitation, Chen replied: “The top priority, for the time being, is to focus on the fight against the pandemic until we win the final victory.”
“It’s not that we are allergic to any kind of investigations, inquiries or evaluations,” he said, as they could aid international efforts to prepare for future public health emergencies.
“We need to race with time to save lives as much as we can,” he added. “For whether or how the invitation will take place, we need to have the right priority setting at this moment, and on the other hand, we need the right atmosphere.”
Additional reporting by Agence-France Presse
