March 10, 2020. The Sankei Shimbun pointed to China’s concealment of information, Taiwan’s swift epidemic-control measures, Japan’s delayed response, and the reason the United States continues to call it the “Wuhan virus.” China’s deception in obscuring the source and posing as a victim must not be tolerated.

March 10, 2020
Is it not also because the United States knows that there is a causal relationship between the existence of the biochemical weapons research institute in Wuhan and the outbreak of this virus?
The fact that, the other day, when the government decided to postpone Xi Jinping’s visit to Japan as a state guest, the Sankei Shimbun overwhelmingly won in its reporting proved that the most decent newspaper in Japan today is the Sankei Shimbun.
Today’s Sankei Shimbun was full of articles proving that fact.
The following is from today’s Sankei Sho.
The parts between asterisks are mine.
What is often compared with the novel coronavirus, whose spread continues, is SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, which broke out in Guangdong Province, China, in 2002 and caused more than 700 deaths worldwide.
The concealment of information by the Chinese authorities became one of the causes of the pandemic.
Outside mainland China, Taiwan was especially badly affected.
“Although China is the source, with SARS we cannot tell where the root cause is. It should be called ‘Chinese pneumonia.’”
Tsai Trong-rong, a legislator of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, appealed for the name to be changed.
It can be said that the tragic experience of that time was put to excellent use.
When the outbreak of the new virus in Wuhan, China, was reported, the Taiwanese government immediately established an epidemic-prevention system.
As early as early February, it banned entry by residents of mainland China.
This is completely different from Japan, which finally began entry restrictions from China and South Korea only yesterday.
The official name of the novel coronavirus decided by the WHO is “COVID-19.”
When the name Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS, was given to an infectious disease also caused by a coronavirus, it provoked opposition from Middle Eastern countries.
Since then, geographical names have no longer been used in the names of infectious diseases.
Nevertheless, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has continued to use the names “Wuhan virus” and “Wuhan coronavirus” at press conferences and elsewhere.
He pays no heed to the opposition of the Chinese government.
As at the time of the SARS outbreak, China did not provide the necessary information this time either.
Behind this seems to be irritation that, as a result, the number of infected people is continuing to rise in the United States as well.
Is it not also because the United States knows that there is a causal relationship between the existence of the biochemical weapons research institute in Wuhan and the outbreak of this virus?
Certainly, in order to contain the novel coronavirus, countries must keep in step and gather their wisdom.
But that does not mean that China’s deception, obscuring the source and pretending to be a victim, can be tolerated.