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Germany: Largest newspaper bills China for coronavirus damage

Bild, which is Germany’s largest newspaper, posted an editorial last week assessing the damage that China’s many failures in relation to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had caused, demanding that the Chinese government foot the bill.

Bild estimates that China owes Germany 149 billion euros for the damage the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown has inflicted on the German economy. It provided an itemized bill, which includes 24 billion euros in lost tourist revenue, 7.2 billion lost by the German film industry, 50 billion to small businesses, and 1 million per hour to Lufthansa.

Bild further claims that the coronavirus has caused a 4.2% drop in Germany’s Gross Domestic Product — which amounts to 1,784 euros lost per German citizen.

The Chinese Embassy in Germany responded angrily to the bill, claiming that the newspaper was merely “stirring up nationalism, prejudice, xenophobia, and hostility toward China,” according to a report by Taiwan News.

Bild’s Editor-in-Chief, Julian Reichelt, responded the following day with an open letter to China’s President, Xi Jinping. In it, he pointed out that China subjects its citizens to strict surveillance and yet can’t keep watch over its animal markets (where it is claimed the virus originated), and that China imposes tight controls on political prisoners and yet exercises lax safety standards in its Wuhan virology laboratories. He also stated that China is the world leader in intellectual property theft.

Reichelt further attacked the Chinese government for not being more forthcoming about the danger posed by the virus early on, particularly in that for weeks China denied that it could be transmitted by person-to-person contact.

Read Complete Editorial Here:
Voice Of Europe
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