China has created and uploaded a short animation film titled "Once Upon a Virus" to mock the U.S. response to the novel 'COVID-19' coronavirus using Lego-like figures to represent the two countries.
Relations between Beijing and Washington have become increasingly hostile over the past years.
And the relationship between the two superpowers worsened even more during the coronavirus, which initially said to have emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan, before growing into a epidemic, and to then a global pandemic.
The U.S. President Donald Trump however, said with confidence that the coronavirus originated from a virology lab somewhere in Wuhan, but declined to describe the evidence.
And here, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua posted an animated video to draft the great-power competition between the two:
In the animation posted online, red curtains open to reveal a stage featuring Lego-like figures in the form of a terracotta warrior wearing a face mask to represent China, and the Statue of Liberty to represent The U.S..
The two Lego figures then start trading barbs.
"We discovered a new virus," says the warrior.
"So what?" replies the Statue of Liberty. "It's only a flu."
As the warrior continues and starts issuing warnings about the virus, the Statue of Liberty replies dismissively with words that echo Trump's press conferences, where the President played down the severity of the illness.
"Are you listening to yourselves?" asks the warrior to the statue, as the latter begins to turn red with illness and gets intravenous therapy.
"We are always correct, even though we contradict ourselves," the statue replies.
"That's what I love about you Americans, your consistency," says the warrior.
With China started to recover, the U.S. is still struggling to contain the disease. This makes officials in the U.S. and its allies to start accusing China for misleading the world about the severity of the outbreak.
While most of the world's population believes that the coronavirus outbreak originated in Wuhan, China, despite there is evidence that authorities there initially covered up the problem, the U.S. and its allies have called for a global investigation into the origin of the virus.
This is something that China has resisted.
Officials in both sides have traded conspiracy theories on Twitter about who should be responsible for this public health crisis.
Donald Trump promoted, without evidence, the theory that a virology lab in Wuhan accidentally released the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while a Chinese official accused the U.S. military of bringing the coronavirus to mainland China.
Trump also considered that the World Health Organization (WHO) took China’s claims about the coronavirus “at face value”, promoted China's "disinformation", and failed to share information about the pandemic as it spreads.
Because of this, he said that the U.S. would temporarily halt funding to the organization.
This move was again mocked by China's officials.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that the U.S. decision would weaken WHO’s capabilities and undermine international cooperation.
In an interview, Trump said that he believes China's handling of the pandemic is proof that Beijing "will do anything they can" to make him lose his re-election bid in November.
With the video, China is trying to mix elements of truth, over-simplifications, exaggerations, and a lack of context. Just like a propaganda video, this kind of approach is effective to deliver a message to someone, fast and easy to digest.
The Lego Group for its part, wrote in an emailed statement, saying that it had nothing to do with the making of this video.
"We weren't involved in making the animation in any way," wrote the Danish toy production company.
