Name: China's state media is using Trump's comments about the US working on a coronavirus vaccine in January to refute claims of a cover-up
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China's state media is using Trump's comments about the US working on a coronavirus vaccine in January to refute claims of a cover-up

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Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowSign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox.Something is loading.China's state media has been making the most of President Donald Trump comment that US scientists have been looking for a coronavirus vaccine since the beginning of the year, saying it's proof the US has been lying about the origin and spread of the virus.At , Trump said scientists from the US National Institutes of Health began working on developing a coronavirus vaccine on January 11.&nbsp;"Most people never even heard what was going on January 11," he said. "And we were out there trying to develop a vaccine, not even knowing what we were up against."&nbsp;The timing was important, according to Chinese media, since it wasn't until January 12 that the World Health Organization announced China had shared a genetic sequence for the coronavirus, which would allow a vaccine to be created.But according to the , another group of researchers from Fudan University also uploaded genetic information onto an open database on January 10.This clarification didn't stop a barrage of articles from China's government-controlled news outlets."This proves the novel coronavirus had been spreading in the United States before January 11, and Trump and some American politicians and media are lying," the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, posted on its Weibo account on May 16.On the English-language version of website, the article said Trump's comments had caused "an uproar worldwide" and signaled that "the Trump administration had been lying about China hiding information about the virus and casting doubts over the real timeline of the coronavirus epidemic in the US."That same day, the Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with People's Daily, published an claiming "netizens" were "demanding explanations from the US" about Trump's comments.On May 17, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV posed questions about the debate on its Weibo page.&nbsp; "Trump's words immediately sparked questions from netizens at home and abroad, where did the virus come from?" a post read. "Did the United States know about the virus early?"Xinhua, another state-run news department, progressed the narrative with an stating the US now owed "the world" an explanation.Chinese media have been using Trump's comments about a vaccine to deny claims of a cover-up, while also promoting the idea the US cannot be trusted. The coronavirus' origins are still not known for sure.Trump and other US officials have suggested, without offering proof, that Chinese state media, meanwhile, have promoted a conspiracy theory that the virus was brought to Wuhan by the US military, according to the .Earlier in May, reported that the US probably had the cases of the coronavirus in December 2019, but was too focused on what was going on in China to notice.China now faces an investigation into the virus' source, although it will be far weaker than what was expected, after China &nbsp;at the World Health Assembly on Monday, according to Business Insider's Alex Ma.&nbsp;Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know.Subscribe to push notificationsAn icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.Keep readingIt indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowSign up for our newsletter to receive our top stories based on your reading preferences — delivered daily to your inbox.Something is loading.China's state media has been making the most of President Donald Trump comment that US scientists have been looking for a coronavirus vaccine since the beginning of the year, saying it's proof the US has been lying about the origin and spread of the...

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James Pasley

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China's state media is using Trump's comments about the US working on a coronavirus vaccine in January to refute claims of a cover-up

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