There Is High Expectation For Better China-US Relations Post Covid-19

Acting Chinese Ambassador in Sri Lanka Hu Wei in this interview says he is confident of a bright future for China-Sri Lanka relations and says certain western politicians are attempting to make China the scapegoat for their negligence. As of 2019, the US has the largest economy and China the second largest. Following are the excerpts from the interview.

- Dinesh Weerakkody

To begin ambassador, why is China being accused of not sharing the information speedily regarding the COVID-19 outbreak to the World Health Organisation (WHO), resulting in the virus spreading globally?

This is an incomprehensible accusation and I also want to know the reason for this question. Maybe you should ask the people who are spreading this disinformation. After all, every accusation needs evidence. In fact, China reported the first few suspicious COVID-19 cases as early as December 31 last year and the WHO declared a state of emergency against the epidemic immediately on the second day.

It has been nearly five months since then but we are surprised to see those ‘blame China’ politicians continuing to say this, when they should have taken effective prevention and control measures to protect their own people. Instead, they are now attempting to make China the scapegoat for their negligence.

Besides, cases of COVID-19 had been found in the United States and some European countries as early as October and November 2019; they were ignored because there were no medical reports or tests at that time.

Given that we are nearly five months into this crisis, how is the situation currently in China?

The pandemic in China is under control at the present. This is due to the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping. China has achieved significant results in the containment of the virus on many fronts. The number of existing confirmed cases currently is lower than 150, most of which are imported cases.