On Wednesday, NBC’s Today show provided a megaphone to the Chinese Communist Party to spread propaganda about the coronavirus pandemic and bash the United States. Throughout a softball report on China rejecting criticism from President Trump, a top official of the authoritarian regime was repeatedly allowed to push misinformation without challenge.
“And now to the war of words that’s erupted between the U.S. and China, after the President suggested the Chinese government should compensate the rest of the world for mishandling the coronavirus outbreak, leading to this pandemic,” co-host Savannah Guthrie announced, framing the effort to hold China accountable as just another international political squabble.
In the segment that followed, NBC’s Beijing-based correspondent Janis Mackey Frayer conducted an exclusive interview with Chinese Executive Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, who promptly attacked Trump: “Those claims are preposterous, they present an out-and-out political farce.”
Frayer explained: “The pandemic has spiked tensions between China and the U.S., with each side accusing the other of downplaying the virus. President Trump now calling for an investigation.”
After a soundbite of the President directly blaming China, Frayer touted the dictatorship’s defense:
But China argues the pandemic is now politicized. A foreign ministry spokesperson even saying politicians in the U.S. are, quote, “Lying through their teeth.” With fewer reported infections and restrictions easing, China is now mounting an all-out campaign to quash criticism and shape how the world sees its response to the virus. At times, raising its own theories, linking the virus to the U.S. military and official Twitter feeds questioning U.S. transparency about its case numbers.
Amazingly, the reporter never pointed out that those “theories” were complete lies.
Instead a clip followed of Le Yucheng absurdly arguing: “The numbers, I think, only point to the effectiveness of China's response efforts. They show China’s experience, not China covering up.”
Frayer then gently wondered if the COVID-19 statistics provided by China were accurate:
FRAYER: So Americans can be 100% confident in the numbers?
LE YUCHENG: Yes.
FRAYER: 100%?
LE YUCHENG: Yes.
That was apparently good enough for her as she continued with the report: “Since the outbreak started, China has been criticized for withholding information and suppressing whistle-blowers, but the government here claims there was enough time to act between the lockdown of Wuhan and the state of emergency in the U.S.”
The segment concluded with one more piece of propaganda from the top echelon of the Chinese government, as Le Yucheng sneered: “The U.S. government should be aware of what was going on in the world. But in this 50-day interval, what was the U.S. government doing? Where have those 50 days gone?”
Ironically, earlier in the month, NBC was warning viewers about “a concerted pro-China campaign” being orchestrated by the regime to cover up its deception and mishandling of coronavirus. Why wasn’t the top government official grilled on that?
Here is a full transcript of the April 29 report:
7:14 AM ET
GUTHRIE: And now to the war of words that’s erupted between the U.S. and China, after the President suggested the Chinese government should compensate the rest of the world for mishandling the coronavirus outbreak, leading to this pandemic. NBC's Janis Mackey Frayer is in Beijing for us this morning. Hi Janis, good morning.
JANIS MACKEY FRAYER: Good morning, Savannah. China’s government is pushing back against President Trump’s suggestion that it pay compensation to the U.S. or to anyone for the coronavirus pandemic. We sat down with Le Yucheng, he is the highest-ranking Chinese official to address the pandemic with foreign media here. And we asked him who should be accountable and whether Americans can trust China’s numbers.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: China Blasts U.S. for “Blackmail”; Top Official Reacts to Trump Calling for Payment for Coronavirus Crisis]
In an exclusive interview with NBC News, China’s executive vice foreign minister likened the calls for compensation to blackmail.
LE YUCHENG: Those claims are preposterous, they present an out-and-out political farce. First of all, asking China to make reparations or these kind of claims they have no legal bases. There is no international law that supports blaming a country for simply being the first to report a disease.
FRAYER: The pandemic has spiked tensions between China and the U.S., with each side accusing the other of downplaying the virus. President Trump now calling for an investigation.
DONALD TRUMP: It should have been stopped at the source, which was China. It should have been stopped very much at the source, but it wasn’t, and now we have 184 countries going through hell.
FRAYER: But China argues the pandemic is now politicized. A foreign ministry spokesperson even saying politicians in the U.S. are, quote, “Lying through their teeth.” With fewer reported infections and restrictions easing, China is now mounting an all-out campaign to quash criticism and shape how the world sees its response to the virus. At times, raising its own theories, linking the virus to the U.S. military and official Twitter feeds questioning U.S. transparency about its case numbers.
LE YUCHENG: The numbers, I think, only point to the effectiveness of China's response efforts. They show China’s experience, not China covering up.
FRAYER: So Americans can be 100% confident in the numbers?
LE YUCHENG: Yes.
FRAYER: 100%?
LE YUCHENG: Yes.
FRAYER: Since the outbreak started, China has been criticized for withholding information and suppressing whistle-blowers, but the government here claims there was enough time to act between the lockdown of Wuhan and the state of emergency in the U.S.
LE YUCHENG: The U.S. government should be aware of what was going on in the world. But in this 50-day interval, what was the U.S. government doing? Where have those 50 days gone?
GUTHRIE: That was Janis Mackey Frayer reporting with her exclusive interview.
