Thai policemen pose for a photograph in front of big screens reading in Chinese "Our hearts to Wuhan" placed outside a shopping mall in Bangkok on February 2, 2020. Photo: AFP

Some Western media and politicians are using the 2019-nCov outbreak as a chance to smear and demonize China and even create rumors to hype sentiments against Chinese people, while the whole country is paying great efforts to minimize the impact and being transparent and responsible to the rest of the world. 

Chinese and foreign experts said on Sunday that the ill-intentioned practices of some Western media and politicians  will backfire, damaging their own images.

Chinese government's efforts and transparent attitude during the fight against the virus also wins the praise and supports worldwide including the World Health Organization (WHO), and many foreigners with conscience also showed their understanding to the situation that China is suffering from and also criticized the racist and anti-China voices, so Chinese people should stay confident and determined to win the battle against the deadly virus, they noted.

However, experts said that the key to protect China's image and win understanding is to improve its capability to manage and contain the outbreak and fix the problems that are criticized by the public. 

The Washington Times published two articles saying that the virus is connected to China's "bioweapon program." 

Shen Yi, director at the Research Center for Cyberspace Governance of Fudan University, said that these media reports showed that some Western media outlets are using the coronavirus outbreak as a chance to hype the "China threat theory," and this just proves that they take pleasure in seeing bad news from China and the virus just provides them a good chance for engaging in such dirty tricks.

"We don't need to be too angry about it as we cannot stop other people from speaking nonsense. The key is how the public opinion of the West reacts to these insults against China, and fortunately, they receive more criticism than praises," he said.

George N. Tzogopoulos, director of EU-China Programmes, and also a senior research fellow at the Center International de Formation Europeenne, told the Global Times that "the Western reaction is full of Sinophobia but this is not new."

Tzogopoulos noted that the current case which revolves around a public health emergency incident shows the cynicism. "We must stand by China until the problem is over and embrace Chinese citizens to the international community."

Rana Ali Qaisar Khan, General Secretary of International Secretariat of the National Party of Pakistan, said that "it is really absurd for the Western media to blame China or Chinese government on the coronavirus" because it is just like "the Black Death in Europe and Hurricane Katrina in the US," and it is nonsense to blame any government or nation for these kind of crisis.

Chinese observers said that when other countries, whether Western or not, faced serious challenges, such as Ebola virus or the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Chinese mainstream society has never sneered or insulted them, but actually provided assistance in most cases. 

Shen said the key to safeguard our reputation is to improve the work of governance. "Only by doing so, the hostile critics  could find no chance to make troubles," he said.