Foreign news

Global online poll shows tracing COVID-19 origins politicized

Published

4 years ago

August 1, 2021

CGTN Think Tank has released a global online opinion poll, in which 80 percent of respondents believe that the issue of tracing of the origins of COVID-19 has been politicized.

Download the full report in PDF: Is virus tracing for COVID-19 politicized?

“Do you think the issue on the origin of COVID-19 has been politicized?” CGTN Think Tank released an online survey on the evening of July 26, Beijing time. According to the survey, 80 percent of the global respondents believed that this issue has been politicized.

The survey is available in several UN official languages, i.e. Chinese, English, Russian, French, Spanish and Arabic, and it was conducted from the early hours of July 24, Beijing time. As of 10 p.m., July 25, among netizens who participated in the survey:

Twitter:

Ninety percent of Spanish-speaking netizens agreed that the origin of COVID-19 has been politicized; 88 percent of French-speaking, 83 percent of Russian-speaking, 70 percent of English-speaking and 68 percent of Arabic-speaking netizens agreed.

Facebook:

On average, 83 percent of English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, French-speaking, Arabic-speaking and Russian-speaking netizens agreed the origin of COVID-19 has been politicized.

Chinese Weibo:

As many as 95 percent of survey respondents believe “the issue on the origin of COVID-19 has been politicized,” showing a high degree of consensus.

The comments left by these global netizens were meaningful. Some English-speaking netizens pointed out that the World Health Organization (WHO) should try to ease the political pressure, and they believe virus tracing of COVID-19 is a political move of the United States to contain the rise of China. Some Spanish-speaking netizens believe that the public opinion about the source of the virus is controlled by major media outlets. A French-speaking netizen left a message saying that the U.S. wants to further sanction China on the grounds of virus tracing. An Arabic-speaking netizen commented that the virus was already politicized during the Trump administration. “This is a lie made up by Western countries and we should not be deceived by politicians,” the comment read. One Russian-speaking netizen said bluntly that this is a fight/war initiated by Western countries.

In analyzing the survey, CGTN Think Tank found certain keywords appeared frequently in these comments: “political pressure,” “U.S. sanctions,” “media control,” “economic compensation,” and “hold back the development of China.”

The second of the three questions in the CGTN Think Tank’s online poll is, “Do you support investigations into the origins of COVID-19 in multiple countries?”

The results of the survey show that 83 percent of the English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Russian-speaking respondents on Twitter support origin-tracing investigations in multiple countries. The favorability rate on Facebook was 79 percent, while the rate on Chinese Weibo was as high as 93 percent.

In response to the question from CGTN Think Tank, “What is the most pressing task to combat COVID-19 on a global scale?”,a large number of global respondents chose expanding vaccine supply, intensifying medical treatment and imposing a lockdown on the outbreak area among the five options available, namely expanding vaccine supply, intensifying medical treatment, immediately origin-tracing the virus, imposing a lockdown on the outbreak area, and lifting travel ban. They left aside the option of immediately origin-tracing the virus with a high degree of unanimity. On Twitter, only about 17 percent of respondents agreed with immediately origin-tracing the virus, while on Facebook, only 2 percent of Spanish-speaking respondents selected this option.

Although netizens participating in the survey are from different parts of the world, they reached consensus quickly and effectively in their comments. They expressed the same aspirations in different languages. “The investigation of the origin of the virus does not help to solve the problem of pandemic control. This is nothing but a stupid and unhelpful political move to cover up the United States’ attempt to contain China’s rise.”

“I believe that the priority now should be that each country can produce effective and specific vaccines, so that people can make their choices.” “The most urgent task to fight the COVID-19 pandemic is to strengthen testing and tracking, and actively carry out vaccination and drug supply. The international community needs a strong network of vaccine manufacturing.” Arabic-speaking netizens called for global vaccines to be well managed, and hope China continues to provide affordable and quality vaccines to the people around the world.

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Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

1 month ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

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