By Rahul Kumar
New Delhi, Jun 23 (IANS): In a bizarre turn of things, China has expressed that it should be awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine.
The statement came from none other than Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijiang, who said that scientists working in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) should be awarded the Nobel Prize for being the first to discover the gene sequence of the novel coronavirus.
The China-managed Global Times quoted Zhao as saying: "Chinese scientists in Wuhan were the earliest to discover the gene sequence of novel coronavirus but it does not mean that Wuhan was the source of coronavirus, nor can it be inferred that the virus was manufactured by Chinese scientists."
As with the regime's statements over the last one-and-a-half years, China is once again trying to twist facts about Wuhan as the epicentre of the virus. On earlier occasions it has blamed the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic on the USA and, once, even on India. With countries calling out China for not sharing timely information about the virus, and letting the highly infectious disease become a pandemic, the communist regime has often sought to blame its opponents.
The latest in that line of offensive strategy is the call for a Nobel Prize.
The latest tactic gained momentum after virologist Shi Zhengli--well known as China's bat woman--was interviewed by the New York Times last week. She angrily refuted the claims that the WIV was the source of the virus. She wrote a message, saying: "I don't know how the world has come to this, constantly pouring filth on an innocent scientist".
It was after Shi's interview and comments that the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson mooted the idea of the Nobel Prize.
A Nobel Prize for the WIV has been panned globally.
To many, Zhao's statement about getting the apex award proves that China remains insensitive to the millions of deaths that have occured since late 2019 when it discovered its citizens dying due to a mysterious flu. Since then over 3.9 million have died worldwide.
The National Review said: "Snark aside, the fact that the Chinese government insists the Wuhan Institute of Virology deserves celebration is another indicator that it intends to change nothing in the aftermath of the pandemic."
Despite the fact that a World Health Organization (WHO) report said that the virus was unlikely to have leaked from the Wuhan laboratory, the global needle of suspicion still points to China. The lab leak theory became the subject of a renewed public debate once again recently after several scientists called for a full investigation into the origins of the virus.
With China displaying bellicosity against many of its neighbours during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, it has only earned disrepute for itself. Trade wars with Australia and the US too have not helped its cause. As the pandemic continues to ravage societies and pushes nations into poverty, the omnipresence and mysterious resurgences of the virus keep pushing people back to the theory that it is a man-made virus.
US President Joe Biden summed up the world's feelings towards China, when he recently said: "I think China has to start to act more responsibly in terms of international norms on human rights and transparency. Transparency matters across the board".