Featured
U.S. Politicians’ Absurd Act Of Scapegoating China Won’t Change Facts

By Zhong Sheng
In a dark, windy night, a gang of extremely vicious terrorists launched a sudden assault on a village. The household which was attacked first was quickly filled with gunfire and flames, and burst into flames.
As the family struggled to survive, another family in the village not only stood by and let the situation get worse, but made sarcastic remarks on the misfortune, saying that “this family must had irritated the terrorists, and thus incurred the revenge now.”
To its surprise, the family that was brutally assaulted fought back against the attackers desperately and wouldn’t flinch in the face of life-threatening danger.
After battling with the family for a long time, the terrorists got frustrated and realized that they had unwisely started the war by attacking a tough family that won’t yield. Then the Mob decided to shift their focus somewhere else.
Surprisingly, the family that mocked the victims became the new target of the terrorist attack and was caught unprepared.
Serious lack of precautions or prompt response to the attack made the second family completely overwhelmed as the attackers drove straight in its house and wantonly slaughtered its family members, causing massive casualties and tremendous damage to its home.
Shocking as it sounds, at the critical moment when the terrorists were still killing more of its family members, the second family didn’t reflect on its own failure in anticipating the situation and coping with the catastrophe, but started to complain that the first family hadn’t captured and killed the terrorists, and even demanded that the first family compensates it for its losses…
Does this story sound just like what happened on the earth since the COVID-19 outbreak?
Today, the U.S. is still faced with severe epidemic situation. Both its number of confirmed cases and death toll of the disease are the highest in the world. No matter the politicians of the country say, facts are facts.
In an effort to shift the blame for their own faults and incompetence onto China to distract attention of U.S. people, certain U.S. politicians first falsely accused China of covering up information about the outbreak, and then cooked up the rumor that the novel coronavirus was leaked from a Chinese lab.
These groundless allegations against China have all been disproven time and again and refuted by scientists and medical experts from various countries repeatedly.
Recently, U.S. politicians adopted new wording to scapegoat China for the spread of the COVID-19 around the globe, saying that “The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasance of the Chinese government.”
What kind of logic is that? Just like the story above, the ridiculous attempt of certain U.S. politicians to pass the buck to China for its own faults is unreasonable and highly illogical.
Every country wants to wipe out major infectious disease as soon as it emerges, but no country can guarantee the result, which is normal and logical, let alone a brand new virus as the novel coronavirus.
Mankind knew nothing about such key aspects of the virus as its transmission and pathogenic mechanisms when it first broke out, which made it extremely difficult to be prevented and controlled.
China was the first to report the disease. But there has been no final conclusion on when and where the human-to-human transmission of the virus started.
When confronted with the infectious disease that has spread the fastest, caused the most extensive infections and been the hardest to contain since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, China made the containment of the epidemic the top priority.
With Chinese President Xi Jinping personally taking charge and planning the response to the outbreak, the country has made nationwide efforts to stop the virus from spreading to other parts of the world.
Putting people’s health and safety before everything else while taking the worst-hit Hubei province and its capital Wuhan the country’s main battlefield against the epidemic, China made clear requirements of preventing the coronavirus from spreading within the region or beyond.
The country has taken a series of decisive measures to prevent and control the spread of the disease and treat patients, preliminarily curbed the rapid spread of the disease in over one month, brought its daily number of new confirmed cases at home under ten in about two months, and made significant achievements in the fight against the virus in Hubei province and its capital Wuhan while bringing the epidemic under control across the country in around three months.
As a country with 1.4 billion people, it’s hardly easy for China to bring the outbreak under control in such a short time.
Just like many foreign media and international figures commented, China has made unquestionable achievements in fighting the COVID-19.
China’s efforts to fight the epidemic helped stem further spread of the disease, effectively cut off the transmission chain of the virus, contributing significantly to the global fight against the epidemic.
In fact, since the outbreak of the epidemic, U.S. politicians have praised China for its epidemic prevention and control measures on many occasions, saying things including “I think China is very, you know, professionally run in the sense that they have everything under control,” “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency,” and “Great discipline is taking place in China, as President Xi strongly leads what will be a very successful operation.”
On Jan. 23, China closed all outbound channels at airports and railway stations of Wuhan, since when until April 8, there had been no commercial flights departing from or arriving in the city, and no trains left the city.
On Jan. 31, the U.S. government was the first among all foreign countries to announce suspension of direct flights between China and the U.S. operated by three major U.S. airlines. On Feb. 2, the country closed its borders to all Chinese citizens and foreigners who had been to China within the previous 14 days.
It seemed that the U.S. thought it can rest easy as long as China was there to prevent and control the spread of the virus and it cut off air links with China, which has been proven to be wishful thinking.
As facts have shown, the U.S. squandered the nearly two-month time window won by China.
U.S. delay in taking social-distancing measures caused about tens of thousands of people to lose their lives to the epidemic, according to a research team from Columbia University.
Had the U.S. begun imposing social-distancing measures one week earlier in March, 36,000 fewer people would have died in the COVID-19 pandemic, and about 83 percent of the country’s deaths would have been avoided, estimated the research team.
Some U.S. people don’t understand why the disease first broke out in China, but spread all over the world rather than various parts of China.
It’s actually quite easy to explain the reasons to those who really don’t understand, as the whole thing is not that complicated. However, it’s afraid that some people have already known the answer and just asked the question to mislead the public.
China’s nationwide efforts to fight the epidemic actually refer to travel restrictions across the country, efforts to put a megacity and a whole province with more than 60 million people under lockdown, tremendous mobilization and deployment of personnel and materials to help Hubei with its epidemic fight, free treatment for all COVID-19 patients, regardless of the cost, earnest implementation of joint prevention and control mechanism in every community and village, and concerted efforts of 1.4 billion people who have voluntarily worn face masks, washed their hands frequently, and avoided gatherings of people.
Inconceivable as they sound for some American people, these are what have actually happened in China, and also the reasons why the disease didn’t spread in large scale to other provinces of the country and was impossible to spread beyond its borders.
Statistics from several major Canadian provinces have shown that the novel coronavirus spread in Canada was brought to the country by U.S. visitors, according to foreign media.
Australia explained clearly in March that 80 percent of its COVID-19 cases have been either imported from overseas or close contacts of these people, with most of the cases being brought in from the U.S.
A latest research report released by Tel Aviv University (TAU) suggested that about 70 percent of Israeli COVID-19 cases had been infected with a novel coronavirus strain that originated in the U.S.
The French research institute Institut Pasteur found that the virus strain circulating locally in France is of unknown origin.
None of the imported COVID-19 cases in Russia was from China.
Singapore’s COVID-19 cases imported from China were less than one tenth of those from other countries.
According to the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases, the novel coronavirus strain confirmed in Japan since early March was not from China.
After researching strains of novel coronavirus found in different patients, research institutes in the U.S. have reached the same conclusion that these strains are highly similar to those of the novel coronavirus found in European visitors.
It’s indisputable that by making all-out efforts to fight the COVID-19, China has not only protected the health and safety of its people, but also contributed to global public health security.
The COVID-19 outbreak has brought about a competition between the virus and sense of responsibility and courage of countries, and also a major test of morality and conscience.
China, while adhering to the principle of putting people’s lives above everything, submitted an “answer sheet” that has been marveled at by people around the world.
Business
Tax Reform Bills: The Verdict of Nigerians

Ismaila Ahmad Abdullahi Ph.D
The public hearings conducted recently by the two Chambers of the National Assembly have elicited positive responses from a broad spectrum of Nigerians, cutting across regional interest groups, government agencies, civil society groups, concerned individuals, the academia, and Labour Unions, among diverse others. Contrary to a few dissensions hitherto expressed in the media, almost all the stakeholders who spoke during the week-long sessions were unanimous in their declaration that the hallowed Chambers should pass the tax reform bills after a clean-up of the grey areas.
The public hearings were auspicious for all Nigerians desirous of economic growth and fiscal responsibility. They were also a watershed moment for the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which had been upbeat about the tax reforms. Indeed, the public hearings had rekindled hope in the tenets of democracy that guarantee freedom of expression and equitable space for cross-fertilisation of ideas. Without gainsaying the fact, the tax reform bills have been unarguably about the most thought-provoking issues in Nigeria today, drawing variegated perspectives and commentaries from even unlikely quarters such as the faith-based leaders, student bodies, and trade unions, which speaks much about the importance of the bills.
In the build-up to the public hearings, not many people believed that the bills would make it to the second reading, much less the public hearings. Even the Northern stakeholders who seemed unlikely to support the passage of the bills have softened their stance and have given valuable suggestions that would enrich the substance of the bills. The Arewa Consultative Forum came to the public hearings well-prepared with a printed booklet that addressed their concerns. It concluded with an advisory that the bills should be “Well planned, properly communicated, strategically implemented and ample dialogue and political consensus allowed for the reforms to be accepted.”
The concerns of ACF ranged from the composition of the proposed Nigeria Revenue Service Board as contained in Part 111, Section 7 of the bill, the unlimited Presidential power to exempt/wave tax payment as proposed in Section 75(1) of the bill, the family income or inheritance tax as contained in Part 1, Section 4(3) of the bill, to the issues around development levy and VAT. On the development levy, the ACF stated that unless the Federal Government is considering budgetary funding for TETFUND, NASENI and NITDA, it does not see the “wisdom behind the plan to replace (them) with NELFUND”.
The position of the North was equally reinforced by the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, Northern Elders Forum, Kano State Government, Professor Auwalu Yadudu, and the FCT Imams. Like the ACF, these stakeholders lent their respective voices to the Section on the Inheritance Tax in Part 1 of the bill and the use of the term ‘ecclesiastical’, which, in their views, undermines certain religious rights and beliefs. The Kano State Government, represented by Mahmud Sagagi, affirmed that “we support tax modernisation” but cautioned that “we must ensure that this process does not come at the expense of states’ constitutional rights and economic stability”. Professor Auwalu Yadudu, a constitutional law professor, drew attention to the use of the ‘supremacy clause’ and cautioned that the repeated use of “notwithstanding” in the bills would undermine the supremacy of the Nigerian constitution if passed as such.
Other stakeholders that made contributions at the sessions included the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Nigeria Customs Service, and a host of others. While most of their concerns bordered on technical issues requiring fine-tuning, they were unanimous in their support for the bills. They aligned with the position of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, Ph.D. and the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, which is that the extant tax laws and fiscal regulations are obsolete necessitating reforms aimed at creating a fair and equitable tax and fiscal space to grow Nigeria’s economy.
In one of the sessions, Dr Zaach Adedeji expounded on the criss-cross of trade activities in the Free Trade Zone whereby companies misuse tax waivers as exporters to sell their goods or services in the Customs Area at an amount usually less than the price the operators in the Customs Area who pay VAT and other taxes sell theirs thereby disrupting business transactions. This way, the operators in the Free Trade Zone shortchange the government in paying their due taxes by circumventing extant regulations, which are inimical to the economy’s growth.
Overall, the presentations were forthright, foresighted, and helpful in elucidating the issues contained in the bills. According to the statistics read out at the end of the hearings at the Senate, 75 stakeholders were invited, 65 made submissions, and 61 made presentations. At the House of Representatives 53 stakeholders made presentations. By all means, this is a fair representation. Given the presentations, it is evident that the National Assembly has gathered enough materials to guide its deliberations on the bills. As we look forward to the passage of the bills, we commend the leadership of the National Assembly for their unwavering commitment to making the bills see the light of the day.
Abdullahi is the Director of the Communications and Liaison Department, FIRS.
-
Featured6 years ago
Lampard Names New Chelsea Manager
-
Featured5 years ago
FG To Extends Lockdown In FCT, Lagos Ogun states For 7days
-
Featured6 years ago
NYSC Dismisses Report Of DG’s Plan To Islamize Benue Orientation Camp
-
Featured5 years ago
Children Custody: Court Adjourns Mike Ezuruonye, Wife’s Case To April 7
-
Featured3 years ago
Transfer Saga: How Mikel Obi Refused to compensate me After I Linked Him Worth $4m Deal In Kuwait SC – Okafor
-
Sports2 years ago
TINUBU LAMBAST DELE MOMODU
-
News3 months ago
Zulu to Super Eagles B team, President Tinubu is happy with you
-
Featured5 years ago
Board urges FG to establish one-stop rehabilitation centres in 6 geopolitical zones