It's a high-stakes strategy for the Asian nation fighting to keep its superpower status amid a national lockdown and palpable anger over claims that Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus, at first covered it up, triggering a worldwide health and economic crisis.

H/T: Fox News

On Sunday, China's ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian said, “Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone ‘made in China.’”

Although the epidemic first broke out in China, it did not necessarily mean that the virus is originated from China, let alone "made in China". pic.twitter.com/EVXLkQnyfF — Chinese Ambassador to South Africa (@AmbLINSongtian) March 7, 2020

Dictatorships typically use state-run media to blame nefarious, external forces as the root of problems during times of rising discontent to channel internal anger away from its own mistakes or shortcomings.

“It's more than just some disinformation or an official narrative,” Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley's Schools of Information, told The Washington Post. “It's an orchestrated, all-out campaign by the Chinese government through every channel at a level you rarely see. It's a counteroffensive.”

“Nuh uh, it’s your virus not our virus, we are rubber and you are glue.” -China, apparently.



“Hmm, I’m sure Orange Man Bad must be at fault, we will go with it..” -our delightful press corps next week probably. https://t.co/lFpYVdTCZZ — SILAWZ (@stucknLAwzmbies) March 12, 2020

Here in the U.S., the opposite problem exists — privately-owned media companies are blaming their own government in order to direct internal anger away from the mistakes of a foreign country. No, really!

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo triggered China apologists in the media during an appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box last week when he repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan virus.” The CNBC panel pushed back by heaping praise on the success of the Chinese communist regime in combatting the virus and questioning whether our civil liberties here in the US might hinder the government response!

Watch the full interview below.