EU should stop making absurd accusations against China

In a joint communication on June 10, the European Union accused Russia and China of spreading disinformation on COVID-19. But nothing could be further from the truth. I was intrigued reading the "examples of disinformation" in the "getting the facts right" section. They include the false claim that drinking bleach can cure novel coronavirus infection; the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus is a creation of the world's elites to reduce population growth; and the narrative that COVID-19 is linked to 5G networks. None of these has anything to do with China but much to do with the United States.

People are too familiar with the bleach story, which the EU report says is responsible for a 15 percent jump in the number of bleach-related incidents recorded by Belgium's Poison Control Center. In my column on May 8, I mentioned another absurd accusation, that of eugenics against Bill Gates' vaccine project by conservative forces in the US.

In fact, when asked about disinformation campaigns by foreign countries, the US president admitted on Fox News on March 30 that "every country does it". The more than 82 million followers of his Twitter account and many more listening to his speeches on COVID-19 could give a long list of disinformation he has spread, including the wild allegation that he has strong evidence to prove the virus came from a Wuhan laboratory.