Opinion | Rage: The book of coronavirus misinformation

By Alan Leung, Blogger specialized on current affairs

In Rage, the second book about Trump's presidency by American journalist, Bob Woodward said US health officials began monitoring the virus outbreak from late December 2019 and the Chinese President Xi Jinping asked his US counterpart Donald Trump not to spark panic over COVID-19, and rejected several offers by Trump to send medical experts to China to help investigate and contain the virus.

According to Rage, Xi advised Trump that lockdowns, quarantine and social distancing were effective in containing the virus, and early testing, early quarantine and early treatment were helpful. Xi also suggested the US take part in the mission by the World Health Organisation to China and told the US president that China was being open and transparent and that its actions were safeguarding not just China but also the world.

It's hilarious that Trump is trying to blast Xi for not accepting his offer of help from an enemy in a confrontation which Trump and the US initiated with the Sino-US Trade War, suppression of Huawei, constant interferences of Chinese internal affairs, regime change operation in Hong Kong, etc. It's a well-known fact America's help always comes with attached conditions which no Chinese in their right mind will accept under the current international situation and political climate.

If we take lessons from history, America's offers of assistance are only made for show and to stroke their own ego. They are nothing more than a trojan horse packed full of evil intent. There are three primary reasons why Trump wanted to send a team to China early in the outbreak:

1) To take credit for the US and his role in helping China handle & overcome the outbreak and to cover his behind because in mid-2019 he pulled out the US CDC disease outbreak early warning team that's been attached to China since SARS in 2003.

2) To gather first-hand intelligence on the severity of impact the lockdown in Wuhan has on the Chinese economy in order to assess how much of an upper hand the US has to extract more concessions during the 2nd phase trade negotiations.

3) To allow intelligence agents hidden within the CDC team to facilitate evidence which the US can use to accuse China if the Coronavirus became a global pandemic in a similar manner the US hidden agent within the WMD inspection team sent to Iraq which allowed the US to fabricate evidence used to justify their invasion of Iraq.

Finally, facts have proven the US was never in any position to help and China's handling of the coronavirus has been much more effective. Given the current COVID-19 disaster in the US, the so-called "help" Trump wanted to send to China in the early days would have been a hindrance rather than help. Moreover, the US was not in a position to cope themselves anyways as CDC staff levels and funding were greatly reduced by the Trump administration prior to the pandemic and the COVID test designed by the CDC in February was flawed which set the US back by at least 3 weeks.

We should thank God that Xi did not accept Trump's offer, otherwise China could possibly be in the same mess the USA is in currently, or worse.

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