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Wall Street Journal stoops to a new low on China: Scholar

Professor Dennis Etler

The Wall Street Journal has “stooped to a new low” by publishing an editorial calling China the “Sick Man of Asia” as the country is valiantly fighting coronavirus, says Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

In an interview with Press TV on Thursday, Etler, a former professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, said, “The Wall Street Journal stooped to a new low by publishing an opinion piece describing China as the 'Sick Man of Asia' in the midst of its struggle to contain and control the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province.”

“Disease imparting viruses emerge throughout the world. The H1N1/9 influenza virus that went pandemic in 2009 infecting perhaps 25% of the world’s population, resulted in an estimated 200-500,000 deaths. It originated in the United States. Other novel viral diseases have recently originated in South America (Zika) and Africa (Ebola). The fact that COVID-19 has an origin in China says nothing about China, its people or its health care system that has produced outcomes that surpass those of the US in terms of declines in infant and maternal mortality and increases in healthy lifespan,” he stated.

China has expelled three reporters working for The Wall Street Journal over a “racist” editorial, calling the country “the Real Sick Man of Asia.”

The country’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that it was canceling the visas of three journalists over the racist headline about the coronavirus epidemic.

"The Chinese side has lodged stern representations with the Wall Street Journal and made our solemn position clear," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement. "China demands the WSJ recognize the severity of its mistake, make an official apology and hold the persons involved accountable. Meanwhile, we reserve the right to take further actions."

Etler said, “The term ‘Sick Man of Asia’ is an offensive pejorative that was applied to China when it suffered its century of humiliation prior to the triumph of the Chinese revolution and the establishment of the People’s Republic. The subsequent history of China expunged that term from people’s consciousness as China advanced to become the world’s largest economy and provided its people with a level of prosperity never before seen throughout its modern history.”

“The use of the term by the Wall Street Journal is meant to cast aspersions on China’s effort to combat COVID-19 and disparage its leadership. It is particularly repugnant to use such a dismissive term when China is marshaling all its resources to safeguard its citizens and save the world from a potentially vicious viral pandemic. Rather than portray China as a hapless victim of the virus, the media should be portraying China as valiantly fighting it and its people are making heroic sacrifices in doing so,” he stated.

“But the Western media, and the World Street Journal in particular, only wants to portray China in the most negative light possible. For anyone who reads and watches Chinese media on a regular basis, they will never see nor hear any America-bashing approaching the level of hyperbole, abuse, and slander that the US media hurls at China. The patience of China has finally worn thin and it deservedly showed the Wall Street Journal the door. Either begin to report the news objectively or stay home,” he noted.


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