Remarks of the Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Canada on the Globe and Mail’s Skepticism About China’s Official COVID-19 Numbers
驻加拿大使馆发言人就《环球邮报》质疑中国新冠肺炎病例数据真实性发表谈话
4 April 2020
2020年4月4日
Recently, the Globe and Mail published a signed article by a commentator titled “Why would we trust China’s official COVID-19 numbers?”. The article slanders that the Chinese government hides facts through a disinformation campaign in the midst of the outbreak. By citing certain politicians’ irresponsible remarks, it smears that “the true number of COVID-19 deaths in China is several thousand more than the official figure of approximately 3300 people”. The above report is completely inconsistent with the facts. We deplore and strongly oppose that.
4月2日，加拿大《环球邮报》发表评论员“为何我们要相信中国官方新冠肺炎病例数据？”一文，污蔑中国政府在疫情期间通过发布虚假信息掩盖事实真相，并援引相关人士不负责任的表态，妄称“中国因感染新冠肺炎死亡的人数要远超官方公布的3300多人”。上述报道与事实完全不符。我们对此表示强烈不满和坚决反对。
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has acted in an open, transparent and highly responsible manner in timely releasing the related data, covering the number of diagnosed, suspected, severe, cured, dead and quarantined. On April 1, a senior WHO official refuted unwarranted accusations on “China’s untransparent data” in a press conference in Geneva. Recently, the journal Science published a paper by researchers in the United States, the UK and other countries saying that China’s control measures worked by successfully breaking the chain of transmission and bought other countries valuable time. China has been making tremendous contributions and sacrifices to fight against the pandemic and this is highly spoken of by the international community.
疫情发生以来，中国政府本着公开、透明和高度负责任的精神，每天都及时公布有关数据，覆盖确诊、疑似、重症、痊愈、死亡和隔离观察等各种情况。4月1日在日内瓦举行的发布会上，世卫组织有关负责人再次驳斥了针对中方数据不透明的无端指责。近日，《科学》杂志刊登了英国、美国等科研人员的共同报告，认为中国的防控举措成功打破了病毒传播链，为其他国家采取措施争取了宝贵时间。中国为全世界抗击疫情作出了巨大贡献和牺牲，这一点国际社会自有公论。
The article views that the US is a democratic state and China is a country led by the Communist government, leading to a ridiculous conclusion that the data of the US is more transparent than that of China. It even has no courage to face the facts that the numbers of infections and deaths of COVID-19 now in the US all surpass that of China, and wishfully believes that the US did better than China in responding to the epidemic. This is a naked double standard.
文章认为“美国是民主国家”，而“中国是共产党领导的国家”，就得出“美国的数据比中国的数据透明”的荒谬结论，却不敢正视目前美国新冠肺炎感染病例和死亡人数都超过中国的事实，还一厢情愿地认为美国应对疫情做得比中国好，这是赤裸裸的双重标准。
The Communist Party of China (CPC) comes from the people and serves the people. It is under the leadership of the CPC that the Chinese people achieved independence, freedom and liberation, and made enormous progress in national development. Faced with the spread of COVID-19, under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping and the CPC, all those infected got free testing and treatment at the earliest time possible. Our arduous efforts yielded remarkable results within two months, and the life and health of all 1.4 billion Chinese people has been protected to the highest extent possible. As the CPC has been dedicated to wholeheartedly serving the people, its domestic support rate has remained on top of public opinion polls conducted by well known companies for many consecutive years. Some persons are just wasting their time and energy to try to drive a wedge between the CPC and the Chinese people.
中国共产党产生于人民，服务于人民。在中国共产党领导下，中国人民赢得了独立、自由和解放，在国家建设中不断取得伟大成就。面对这次新冠肺炎疫情，在习近平主席和中国共产党坚强有力领导下，我们做到了应收尽收、应治尽治，在两个月左右时间里取得了疫情防控重大阶段性成果，14亿中国人民的生命安全和身体健康得到了最大程度的保护。正是由于中国共产党全心全意为人民服务，中国政府的支持率连续多年在国际知名民意调查公司民调中高居榜首。一些人想挑拨中国共产党同中国人民的关系，那是枉费心机。
We urge the Globe and Mail to abandon prejudice, respect facts, and stop making irresponsible remarks against China’s efforts to fight against COVID-19.
我们敦促《环球邮报》摒弃偏见、尊重事实，停止针对中国抗疫努力发表不负责任的言论。