On Saturday, Julian Reichelt, the editor-in-chief of the German tabloid newspaper Bild, released a fiery video responding to Communist Chinese president Xi Jinping after the Chinese government criticized Bild for suggesting China pay roughly 149 billion euros to Germany for losses Germany has suffered from the coronavirus.
The Week reported:
The list of losses prepared by Bild under the title What China Owes Us include, “27 billion euros for lost tourism revenue, up to 7.2 billion euros for the German film industry, a million euros an hour for German airline Lufthansa and 50 billion euros for German small businesses.” Bild calculated that this amounts to 1,784 euros (1,550 pounds) per person if Germany’s GDP falls by 4.2 per cent. Criticizing Beijing in harsh language, Bild accused the Xi Jinping administration of holding up coronavirus information in the early stages. China dismissed all allegations and responded by saying the Bild invoice “stirs up xenophobia and nationalism.”
Reichelt fired back, asserting, “You rule by surveillance; you wouldn’t be president without surveillance … you have made your country the world champion in intellectual property theft. China enriches itself with the inventions of others instead of inventing on its own … China’s greatest export hit that nobody wanted to have but which has nevertheless gone around the world is corona … Why are your toxic laboratories not as secure as your prisons for political prisoners?”
He added, “Before corona, China was known as a surveillance state; now China is known as a surveillance state that infected the world with a deadly disease. That is your political legacy.”
Reichelt concluded, “Your embassy tells me that I am not living up to the ‘traditional friendship’ of our people. I suppose you consider it a great friendship when you now generously send masks around the world. This isn’t friendship; I would call it imperialism hidden behind a smile, a Trojan horse. You plan to strengthen China through the plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later.”
Reichelt’s full statement below:
Dear Xi Jinping:
Your embassy in Berlin has addressed me in an open letter because we asked in our newspaper, Bild, whether China should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide. Please let me respond.
First: You rule by surveillance; you wouldn’t be president without surveillance. You monitor everything; every citizen, but you refuse to monitor the diseased wet markets in your country. You shut down every newspaper and website that is critical of your rule, but not the stores where bat soup is sold. You’re not only monitoring your people; you’re endangering them, and with them, the rest of the world.
Second: Surveillance is a denial of freedom. A nation that is not free is not creative. A nation that is not innovative does not invent anything. This is why you have made your country the world champion in intellectual property theft. China enriches itself with the inventions of others instead of inventing on its own.
The reason China does not innovate and invent is that you don’t let the young people in your country think freely. China’s greatest export hit that nobody wanted to have but which has nevertheless gone around the world is corona.
Third: You, your government and your scientists had to know long ago that corona 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 and which now became a global disaster.
Fourth: The Washington Post reports that your laboratories in Wuhan have been researching coronaviruses in bats but without maintaining the highest safety standards. Why are your toxic laboratories not as secure as your prisons for political prisoners? Would you like to explain this to the grieving widows, daughters, sons, husbands, parents of corona victims all over the world?
Fifth: In your country, your people are whispering about you; your power is crumbling. You have created an inscrutable, non-transparent China. Before corona, China was known as a surveillance state; now China is known as a surveillance state that infected the world with a deadly disease. That is your political legacy.
Your embassy tells me that I am not living up to “traditional friendship” of our people. I suppose you consider it a great friendship when you now generously send masks around the world. This isn’t friendship; I would call it imperialism hidden behind a smile, a Trojan horse. You plan to strengthen China through the plague that you exported. You will not succeed. Corona will be your political end, sooner or later.
Yours sincerely, Julian Reichelt.
Video below: