Chinese Intelligence Services Warned of Harsh Confrontation between Beijing and the West over Coronavirus

The situation surrounding the coronavirus pandemic and its consequences could lead to a confrontation between the United States and China and to an increase in hostile sentiments in the world towards Beijing. This stated the secret report of Chinese special services for the PRC leadership, Reuters familiarized with the context. The report, prepared by experts from the institute under the Ministry of State Security of China, emphasizes that the attitude towards China in the world has recently reached the same negative level as after the brutal suppression of protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989. If events develop according to the worst-case scenario then direct military clash between the US and China is not ruled out, the authors of the report warn. The document also says that anti-Chinese sentiment, strengthened by the epidemic, could lead to a number of countries resisting the implementation of Chinese international projects, including the One Belt, One Way infrastructure project in Eurasia and along with Washington could increase supporting its allies and competitors to China in Southeast Asia. The Reuters interlocutor, familiar with the contents of the report, compared it with the "Novikov telegram", a report from the Soviet ambassador Nikolai Novikov about US policy towards the USSR at the beginning of the Cold War. The Chinese Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the message. Relations between the US and China, at present already tense due to the "trade wars" and opposing interpretations by the parties to the events in Hong Kong and the South China Sea, have become even more aggravated after the outbreak. US President Donald Trump has blamed China for concealing data on coronavirus emergence and spread. State Secretary Mike Pompeo said the day before that the virus might have begun to spread due to a leak from the Chinese laboratory in the city of Wuhan. China categorically denies the possible leak. Citing a four-page report from the US Department of Homeland Security, the Associated Press reported on Monday that the US leadership did not rule out that China sought to hide the scale of the coronavirus outbreak and its severity, while secretly accumulating protective equipment and drugs . The new coronavirus appeared in China last year. The Chinese authorities called the seafood market in Wuhan as source of their infection. Since then, according to the latest data, about 248 and a half thousand people became victims of COVID-19 around the world. The number of people infected with coronavirus exceeded three and a half million. The five most affected countries are the USA, Spain, Italy, Great Britain and France. Russia is on seventh place. About 83 thousand people were officially ill; more than 4 and a half thousand people died in China. The President of the United States, where more than 68 and a half thousand became victims of the coronavirus, and the number of infected people approaches one million 200 thousand has repeatedly expressed doubts about official Chinese statistics.