Editor's note: Keith Lamb is a University of Oxford graduate with an MSc degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies. His primary research interests are China's international relations and "socialism with Chinese characteristics." The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Image, both good and bad, can be created through the power of the media. This image can be used as the very foundation for further reporting which creates beliefs that in turn "justify counter-reactions."

For example, the whole palaver over "China's repressive lockdown measures" would not have been entertained unless there was already a pre-set negative image in place. This image is that China's governing system is inhumane. The irony is that a strict lockdown saved lives.

Of course, those who are inhuman, would also not be capable of telling the truth. This further leads to just about any conspiracy being postulated. The story of 21 million-plus, Chinese, sim cards being canceled, during COVID-19, was used as the basis of one slur which postulated China was covering up a mountain of deaths.

Anti-China propaganda is gullibly swallowed, at pandemic rates, because of the pre-set China "baddy" image. Considering "truth" mutates from one outrageous slur to another and considering there is scientific evidence that suggests that COVID-19 was circulating outside China, before December 2019, not to mention, the mysterious COVID-19 symptoms at Fort Detrick, it's time we asked if China is being framed for COVID-19.

Is there an actor with both a precedent and a motive to carry out such a mean-spirited action? In terms of a precedent, there are many occasions where the geopolitical hegemon, has conspired to advance its interests even at the cost of international peace.

For example, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, where the Vietnamese torpedoed two U.S. ships, led to the counter-reaction of the escalation of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war. Except, according to an internal investigation by the National Security Agency (NSA), this event didn't happen. The 47,000 U.S. and 1.1 million North Vietnamese deaths were all for nothing.

The U.S. and its allies didn't learn, it is now well known that the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) evidence, justifying the Iraq invasion, was cooked up. Then, Afghanistan isn't necessarily the "good war."

Afghanistan was seen, by U.S. deep-state interests, as a way to encircle China. Uygur independence activists were, and still are, cultivated by the U.S. Indeed, after training in Afghanistan and fighting abroad they returned to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to wreak havoc.

Of course, terrorist activities need funding. Gary Webb, the author of "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion," describes how the CIA, since the Reagan administration, supported cocaine trafficking from central America to pay for anti-communist Nicaraguan rebels.

The True Democracy Party believes Afghanistan also has a drug component. Opium production, which had been wiped out by the Taliban, soared to record highs after the NATO invasion. Pictures abound of both U.S. and UK troops bizarrely guarding the opium crop, which was reported as being tolerated for fear of losing stability and support.

These sorts of conspiracies still play out on China today. The narrative of genocide, slavery and concentration camps is a clear example of this. Like WMD, they are used to shock and awe Western citizens into supporting belligerent Cold-War actions. COVID-19 could be just another front for turning Western populations against China.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VCMF) which has created the pseudo-academic "evidence" for the Xinjiang genocide even shares board linkages with the "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC), the think tank that was instrumental in both the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. It also set in motion the U.S. pivot to Asia.

Furthermore, VCMF is funded by both anti-China forces, in the U.S. and even the Taiwan region.

If tyranny, war, genocide and slavery can be cooked up for the purpose of hegemonism, biowarfare for the goal of defaming China is hardly out of bounds. The Internationalist, in fact, has documented numerous cases of U.S. biowarfare against Cuba, such as introducing swine fever in 1971 and dengue fever in 1983. From this vista, it is the U.S.'s image that is lacking.

On the other hand, let's be charitable. While there is a motive, there is an actor, and there are multiple precedents that led to a vicious counter-reaction, we shouldn't jump to conclusions. The blaming of China for COVID-19 may be a part of the U.S.'s hybrid warfare but I would like to think, despite history proving otherwise, certain zero-sum forces would not stoop so low as to purposely infect China.

However, it is time to put doubts to rest and look more closely at the reports of COVID-19 symptoms spreading around the bio-lab at Fort Detrick, way before COVID-19 appeared in China. It's time to inspect the U.S. soldiers that came from Fort Detrick to attend the Wuhan October 2019 Military Games.

I'm sure the U.S. will have no problem opening up their most secret facilities to a team of Chinese or international inspectors.

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