The British newspaper Daily Mail, one of the most widely-read publications in both the United Kingdom and the United States, has been found to have reprinted multiple stories directly from Chinese government sources regarding the coronavirus, as reported by Daily Caller.
Most of the propaganda in question came from People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. One such story recently claimed that China is facing a second coronavirus outbreak due to an “increasing number of infections detected among new arrivals from abroad.” The report mostly relies on the word of Li Lanjuan, a high-ranking doctor in the Chinese government.
On Monday, another story reprinted by the Mail cited China News in claiming that “the U.K. is now the worst offender for sending [coronavirus] cases to China.” The Caller ultimately found that this apparent content-sharing agreement between the Mail and People’s Daily was reached back in 2015.
The Chinese government has been actively ramping up its propaganda efforts since the outbreak of the virus began. After initially covering up the virus itself, doctoring the initial death tolls, and silencing doctors who warned about the severity of the virus, the Chinese government has recently tried shifting blame to the United States, with the baseless accusation that the virus originated in America and was brought into China.