Macron: "The idea that China handled COVID-19 well is naive"

"There Are Things Happening in China That We Don't Know"
US and UK Question China's COVID-19 Transparency Together

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] French President Emmanuel Macron stated that there are doubts about the transparency of information regarding China's response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This is interpreted as an extension of the 'China responsibility theory' raised by Western countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, along with a protest message against the Chinese ambassador to France who criticized France's COVID-19 response.

According to foreign media including the UK’s BBC on the 17th (local time), President Macron said in a media interview the day before that when asked whether the authoritarian regime's top-down COVID-19 response in China was successful because it exposed the weaknesses of Western democratic societies, "It is impossible to compare an open society with a society where truth is suppressed," and added, "It is naive to say that China handled the COVID-19 crisis well."

He continued, "There are definitely things that happened in China that we do not know about." President Macron emphasized, "Giving up freedom to fight the epidemic could threaten Western democratic countries," and said, "We cannot accept this. You cannot discard the DNA (democratic values) that form your foundation just because there is a health crisis."

President Macron's remarks came after the Chinese ambassador to France recently posted on the official website a controversial article disparaging France's epidemic response by saying that France "left the elderly to die in nursing homes." The French government immediately summoned the Chinese ambassador to strongly protest, while the Chinese government dismissed the controversy as a misunderstanding.

There is also analysis that this aligns with the China responsibility theory raised in the United States and the United Kingdom. Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on the 15th that other countries are hiding the number of deaths, responding to criticism that the U.S. officially has the highest number of deaths worldwide. Targeting China, President Trump said, "Is there anyone who really believes the numbers from these countries?" and mentioned that unverified reports that COVID-19 originated not from a market but from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, are under investigation. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also raised questions about the outbreak and early containment failure of COVID-19 at a press conference on the 16th, warning that "there will be a thorough analysis of how the virus spread from China," and that the situation will not be the same as usual after this incident ends.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.