With the rise of the COVID-19 Pandemic, various media outlets have reported on how Chinese media use invented people to spread misinformation and propaganda for their own interests. For example, the story of the alleged Swiss biologist Wilson Edwards, who does not exist, was uncovered. This automatically raises the question of whether this is just the tip of the iceberg and how many other non-existent “experts” are ghosting through the net and engaging in targeted disinformation?
Chinese state media have quoted a Swiss biologist, Wilson Edwards, as expressing dismay over allegations that the Wuhan virology lab may have had something to do with the coronavirus pandemic outbreak. Leading state-owned newspapers such as the People’s Daily and Global Times, citing the Swiss scientist, reported that even the World Health Organization (WHO) complained of “enormous pressure and even intimidation from the United States.” “The Americans are so obsessed with attacking China on the issue of the origin of the pandemic that they are disregarding the real data and findings,” the Swiss researcher said.
This Swiss researcher is said to be named Wilson Edwards and works at the University of Bern. As a Swiss, he should probably stand for quality and credibility. But at the University of Bern and nowhere else has anyone ever heard of a Wilson Edwards. Edwards quickly turned out to be a fictitious propaganda figure of the Chinese.
Wilson Edwards, a Swiss researcher, a Covid expert. However, except in China, no one has ever heard of him!
The Swiss Embassy in Beijing diplomatically debunked Chinese state propaganda. “The man’s Facebook page was probably not created for social purposes”, the Swiss embassy summed up in a tweet openly accusing the Chinese of fake news. And, “Wilson Edwards, if you really exist, we’d love to meet you!” Since then, Edwards had made the international headlines around the world. China was caught red-handed.
The fact that the Chinese propaganda machinery worked so sloppily in the Edwards case probably suggests that the fabricated Swiss is by no means an isolated case. Edwards’ Facebook profile, which was only two weeks old, had only three followers. In the meantime, the probably ashamed Chinese have deleted all traces of the virtual Swiss in the international headlines. There is “a problem” with the Swiss scientist who doubts the Covid theory of origin, headlined the “Washington Post.” The problem: “He doesn’t exist.”
“Doctor who?” asks the Indian “Express”. “China uses suspiciously a Swiss biologist in the virus information war,” headlines the Australian “Financial Review.” The respected US political magazine “Foreign Policy” tries to classify the lying of the Chinese. Foreign countries hardly fall for the crude Chinese conspiracy theories. China’s state media campaign with fake news and sources, which seeks to blame the U.S. for the pandemic and inflame its own population, comes “at a high diplomatic cost.”
Britain’s Guardian and other newspapers have checked with the Chinese media, which has since deleted all reports. Of course, no one has ever received any answers.
This is not the first incident, in March 2021, the Chinese invented a French journalist named Laurène Beaumond. The Journalist puts allegations of mass oppression of Muslim Uighurs in a positive light. Again, no one in France had ever heard of the alleged China specialist!
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