On Tuesday, the Globe and Mail published an article, titled "The Chinese Communist Party's culture of corruption and repression has cost lives around the world", in which two commentators from the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights said that COVID-19 containment efforts were compromised by, alleged, Chinese Communist Party attempts to underreport the scope of the outbreak in Wuhan.
"The article is full of hatred and prejudice against the Communist Party of China (CPC), and even agitate 'the Community of Democratics' to hold China accountable through... legal initiatives. The above report is completely inconsistent with the facts. We deplore and strongly oppose that", the embassy spokesman's office said in a statement on Friday.
The embassy went on to highlight the response that Chinese authorities undertook to the outbreak and their collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the international community.
Critics have charged China with allowing the COVID-19 pandemic to get out of control by hiding the outbreak and under-reporting data on those infected. The alleged wrongdoing prompted US President Donald Trump to halt funding for the WHO, which he accused of grossly mismanaging and covering-up on behalf of China the spread of the novel coronavirus. Trump has said the WHO’s reliance on this data has caused a 20-fold increase in COVID-19 cases worldwide. Trump announced a suspension period of 60 to 90 days pending completion of an investigation of WHO and Chinese actions during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu told reporters during a daily briefing on the pandemic on Wednesday that Canada respects the work of the WHO and is committed to contributing to the UN agency. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Trump made no request of Canada to adjust its contribution to the organization.
