Sinovac Photo: VCG

The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines released a statement on Monday urging the US to give "a long-overdue explanation" for the severe damage it inflicted on the Philippines by the lies it has told regarding China's Sinovac vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic, which local infectious disease experts said has "led to unnecessary suffering and death."

Reuters reported in June that the US military had launched, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China's growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.

The US government's disinformation campaign against China's anti-COVID vaccine "has caused significant damage in the Philippines on so many levels," a Filipino infectious diseases expert Edsel Salvana was cited by the Manila Times on Saturday.

The campaign "led to unnecessary suffering and deaths among those who were hesitant to take the available vaccines as the anti-Sinovac propaganda forced people to wait for the arrival of the American-made alternative," Salvana said, adding that it was also "disheartening to learn the US, as an ally, would do such a thing at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that killed millions worldwide."

The US Marine Corps has recently published a doctrine titled "Deception," according to the US website Military.com, which is a tactic used to deceive enemy and create disinformation. Jeffrey Hill, a US intelligence officer and the lead author of the doctrine, reportedly said that "if you ain't deceiving, you ain't fighting."

Commenting on the series of actions, a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in Manila said that from former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo publicly saying "we lied, we cheated, we stole," to the recent revelation of Pentagon disinformation campaign against Chinese vaccines, and to the latest military doctrine "Deception," facts have shown time and again that to advance selfish agenda in the name of justice, to spread disinformation through deceptive propaganda, and to frame and suppress other countries through manipulating public opinion and perception have become the US' go-to tactics. 

"What the US has been doing is not unknown to the world who is wary against such tactics," the spokesperson noted. "Long gone are the days when the US could deceive the world into serving its selfish agenda."

The embassy urged the US to end this kind of wrongful approach at once, stop manipulation through lies, and halt smearing and vilifying other countries. 

What's more, the US should give "a long-overdue explanation" to the international community both for its dissemination of disinformation over the years and for the severe damage inflicted by the US "Deception" strategy and anti-Sinovac propaganda on the Philippines.

Global Times