China's ambassador: Wuhan COVID-19 data revision shows transparency
Updated 22:10, 21-Apr-2020
CGTN
A worker in protective overalls take the temperature of a traveler from Wuhan before directing her to her district in Beijing on April 19, 2020. /AP

A worker in protective overalls take the temperature of a traveler from Wuhan before directing her to her district in Beijing on April 19, 2020. /AP

The COVID-19 data revision in Wuhan has showed China's transparency of information on the pandemic, said Lu Shaye, Chinese ambassador to France, on Monday.

Wuhan, the Chinese city hard-hit by the virus, revised its number of confirmed cases and deaths on April 17. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wuhan as of the end of Thursday was revised up by 325 to 50,333, and the number of fatalities up by 1,290 to 3,869.

China has hidden nothing and will never do this, said Lu, when he responded to accusations of concealment of information on the COVID-19 in an interview by French media RMC with the host Jean-Jacques Bourdin. 

Data revision is a common international practice, he stressed, adding that all countries, including France, could do this. 

The ambassador then explained to Bourdin what China did in the first three weeks of the outbreak for further clarification. 

On December 30, the local government of Wuhan discovered pneumonia cases caused by an unknown virus, and from January 3 onwards, the World Health Organization (WHO) started updating information on these cases, the ambassador said. Nine days later, China obtained the genetic sequencing of the virus and immediately shared with the WHO and the world. 

On January 23, China declared a lockdown in Wuhan and Hubei Province, where the city is located. Everyone's aware what China was doing, the ambassador said. 

The host followed up with a question, asking why two doctors who reported the outbreak were seen as rumormongers, with one of them "arrested, imprisoned, threatened," before he died of the disease.

Lu corrected the anchor, saying that they were not arrested, adding that they were not the first ones to report the outbreak. It was Dr. Zhang Jixian who first reported the outbreak on December 27, Lu revealed.

The ambassador then explained that the doctor was approached by the police as per law.

He said that the situation was not clear at first and the police were just following the rules. He gave an example of similar situations in the United States: "The police could shoot people in self-defense if they suspected them to be in possession of illegal weapons. He asked: "Should the policemen be punished afterwards?" 

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In the interview, Lu also responded to the theories floated by U.S. President Donald Trump like "the virus came from a laboratory."

The Americans do not have the right to investigate in China. An investigation should not be carried out on the basis of rumors, said Lu.

If they have accusations they must provide evidence, but there is no such evidence so far," Lu added.