China’s state-run news emergency Xinhua on April 29 posted and animated video with the title “Once upon a virus”. The two countries (China and the US) were represented by Lego characters. Over the weeks Beijing and Washington have been in a war of words arising from the origin of coronavirus. Recently President Trump sent spies to China to find out if the virus was manmade or modified in a lab, there have also threatened severely to take action against China if it was ever found out that the virus was spread knowingly.
The virus originated in Wuhan, China and has become a global pandemic making virtually all countries go on a compulsory lockdown. In the animation red curtains open to reveal a Lego character in the form of a terracotta warrior wearing a face mask and a statue of liberty. The animation was published on Xinhua news youtube channel. The video was 1.40 minute long and showed how China had warned the US about the covid-19 virus and how those steps were not taken by the US.
In the video, the terracotta warrior and the statue of liberty were standing face to face and the terracotta warrior says “We discovered a new virus” and the statue of liberty responds “so what? It’s only the flu”. Further along in the animation, the statue of liberty says “you lied… and because the WHO agrees with China, we are cutting funding of the WHO”. The animation video was viewed 1.6 million times on Twitter. At the end of the video, the statue of liberty is heard saying “we are always correct, even when we contradict ourselves”, while the terracotta warrior responds “that’s what I love best about you Americans, your consistency”.
The Lego has come out to point out that it has nothing to do with the video. A Lego spokesperson said “we weren’t involved in making the animation in any way. As a toy company, we are focused on bringing the play to children and families”. The video received several backlashes with people claiming China’s warning were misleading and fake. The United States has been one of the worst-hit countries with over 1.16 million cases and almost 64,000 deaths. The pandemic has been spread globally causing over 3.44 million cases worldwide and over 244,000 deaths.
