“Before pointing the finger at others, what is the cause of the 7 million cases of disease and more than 200,000 deaths in the United States?” Asked the Chinese ambassador, accusing Washington of spreading “the virus of disinformation "," To lie ", to" deceive ". He received strong support from his Russian counterpart Vassily Nebenzia.
Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun strongly attacked the United States on Thursday, which again accused China of being responsible for the spread of Covid-19, during a Council video conference on the future of global governance in which several heads of state and ministers participated. "That's enough! You have created enough problems in the world, ”Zhang Jun launched at the end of the session under the stoic eye of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.“ Before pointing fingers at the others, what is the cause of the 7 millions of cases of disease and more than 200,000 deaths in the United States? ”asked the Chinese ambassador, accusing Washington of spreading“ the virus of disinformation ”, of“ lying ”, of“ deceiving ”. "This will not solve any problem", "stop politicizing the virus", "a great power must behave like a great power", he insisted, before receiving strong support from his Russian counterpart Vassily Nebenzia. At the UN, this volley of green wood surprised many diplomats, while the exchanges in the highest enclosure of the organization are usually measured, weighed with the trebuchet of diplomatic language. These diplomats also pointed out that it was prompted by a very surprising start to the speech by the United States. "I am stunned, I am ashamed of this Council, disgusted by the content of today's debate" and its
members, who have chosen "to focus on political grudges rather than on the crucial question", affirmed from the outset the American ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft. Beforehand, all the speeches of the leaders of the member countries of the Security Council had been "rather consensual", notes a diplomat on condition of anonymity. The opening of the American representative was "very aggressive", he said.
During the meeting chaired by the President of Niger Issoufou Mahamadou and in which the Tunisian, South African and Estonian leaders participated in particular, and the heads of diplomacy Sergei Lavrov (Russia) and Jean-Yves Le Drian (France), Kelly Craft also reiterated the accusations made Tuesday by US President Donald Trump before the General Assembly. "The decision of the Chinese Communist Party to hide the origins of this virus, to minimize its danger and to suppress scientific cooperation, has transformed a local epidemic into a global pandemic", she denounced. “Most importantly, these decisions cost hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. Hundreds of thousands". When at the end of the session the Chinese Ambassador - who had replaced his Foreign Minister Wang Yi - asked to speak again to protest against the American discourse, Kelly Craft had disappeared from the screen, a second-rank diplomat of the American mission to the UN representing the United States. During her speech, the American ambassador also accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of being "corrupt". Washington broke away from this UN agency in the spring after strong criticism of President Trump. "Equally disturbing is the danger posed by corrupt international organizations," the US ambassador said, explicitly citing the WHO.
Earlier this week, the tone of the United States against China had already been virulent during the annual speech of the American president to the UN General Assembly. The latter is being held this year virtually due to the pandemic and all countries had been asked to send a video of their leader at least four days before the start on September 22 of the global diplomatic high mass. Donald Trump sent his on Monday, the day before the opening of the Assembly. The tone of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who intervened shortly afterwards with him also a video, had remained measured, evoking the need not to “politicize” the fight against the coronavirus. At each Annual General Assembly, a right of reply is granted to countries and occurs after the 193 speeches of member states have been delivered. This year, it will be Tuesday, September 29. General Assembly spokesman Brenden Varma said Thursday that the institution "has received a request from China to exercise its right to a response." Beijing must also make this request to the UN Secretary General to be able to intervene next week, he said.