By Mary Rose Corkery
The editor-in-chief of a Chinese state-run media outlet said in a tweet Friday that President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump “paid the price” for downplaying the coronavirus pandemic after both tested positive.
“President Donald Trump and the first lady have paid the price for his gamble to play down the COVID-19. The news shows the severity of the US’ pandemic situation,” Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Global Times, said in a Twitter post on Friday.
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The president announced on Twitter that he and the first lady tested positive for COVID-19 early Friday. Hope Hicks, a close advisor to the president, tested positive for the virus on Wednesday after she traveled with him on Tuesday, according to ABC News.
“It will impose a negative impact on the image of Trump and the US, and may also negatively affect his reelection,” Hu continued, according to his Twitter post.
The State Department had placed the outlet and other Chinese news outlets on foreign mission status “as controlled by the government” in June, The New York Post reported.
Reports have indicated the Chinese government had been attempting to conceal the virus, causing it to significantly spread.
A Department of Homeland Security report in May said the Chinese government delayed informing the World Health Organization that the virus “was a contagion” for most of January in order to buy medical supplies from outside the country. The country’s imports of face masks, gloves and surgical gowns increased dramatically in that period, according to the Associated Press.
The Chinese government also purposefully downplayed the pandemic over and over and also silenced doctors who had earlier sounded the alarm about the pandemic, according to the Associated Press.
The Global Times, an English and Chinese tabloid run by the Chinese government, has been criticized for spreading disinformation that is, according to Business Insider.
The Global Times did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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