Politics

Chinese Government-Linked Account Mocks COVID-19 Deaths In India

WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images

Anders Hagstrom White House Correspondent
Font Size:

A Chinese Communist Party-linked account mocked India’s record-breaking COVID-19 outbreak in a now-deleted post to the nation’s version of Twitter, “Weibo,” CNN reported Monday.

The account, operated by the CCP’s Central Commission for Political and Legal Affairs, posted a photo of a Chinese space exploration rocket blasting off side-by-side with cremation pyres burning in India amid the country’s devastating outbreak of COVID-19.

“China lighting a fire versus India lighting a fire,” the caption reportedly read. (RELATED: ‘Politics, Not Science’: Scientists Cast Doubt On China’s Story Of COVID-19)

The account was shared by several other government-linked accounts on the site soon after posting, according to CNN. Users criticized the post for its disregard of ongoing suffering in India, however, and it was later deleted.

India is suffering a record-breaking spike in COVID-19 cases, with thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases per day. The country reported nearly 380,000 new cases and 3,645 deaths on Thursday alone. (RELATED: India Can’t Cremate The Bodies Of COVID-19 Victims Fast Enough)

China faced similar issues of over-worked cremation facilities during its own battle against COVID-19 before it spread out of China to the rest of the world. Governments the world over have also accused China of falsifying its data on coronavirus cases and deaths in the early days of the pandemic.

The Chinese government’s official tally puts the Wuhan death toll alone at roughly 3,800, but evidence indicates the true number could be as high as 40,000.

President Joe Biden has vowed to send aid to India in the form of ventilators, oxygen and other medical equipment. He also restricted travel from India on Friday. The travel restriction will not, however, apply to U.S. citizens and only prevents those who cannot provide a negative COVID-19 test from traveling to the U.S.