Germany has joined France, the UK and the US in directing its coronavirus anger at China, where the virus originated as German Chancellor, Angela Merk
Germany has joined France, the UK and the US in directing its coronavirus anger at China, where the virus originated as German Chancellor, Angela Merkel called out Beijing’s responsibility for the global pandemic and issued a £130bn invoice.
Recent attacks come amid findings that Beijing appeared to cover up the true scale of the crisis, as the source of the outbreak remains a mystery. Donald Trump had earlier warned that China should face consequences if it was “knowingly responsible” for unleashing the coronavirus pandemic.
A bombshell op-ed in Germany’s largest tabloid newspaper, Bild, joined this outrage by drawing up an itemised invoice for €149bn (£130b). The list includes a €27 billion charge for lost tourism revenue, up to €7.2 billion for the German film industry, a million euros an hour for German airline Lufthansa and €50 billion for German small businesses. Bild calculated that this amounts to €1,784 (£1,550) per person if Germany’s GDP falls by 4.2 percent, under the title “What China owes us.”
China responded by claiming the invoice stirs up xenophobia and nationalism. Bild Editor-in-Chief, Julian Reichelt rebutted the criticism, saying: “We asked in our newspaper, Bild whether China should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide. Xi Jinping, your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn’t respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. “You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace.”
