Internal Chinese report warns of global backlash over Covid-19 pandemic
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s office has said that it has no knowledge of such a report.
By IAR Desk
An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, reported Reuters on Tuesday, 4 May, quoting sources familiar with it.
Quoting the unnamed sources, who claimed to have seen the report, Reuters said that the report, was presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping. The report concluded that global anti-China sentiment was at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers.
According to Reuters the report was drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, China’s top intelligence body.
Reuters has acknowledged that it has not seen the briefing paper, but it was described by people who had direct knowledge of its findings.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson’s office told Reuters in response to a query that it had no knowledge of such a report.
