Moderator: Mr. Ambassador, thank you for your interview. Trump recently publicly said that he thought China had lied, and the actual death toll in China was much higher than the official data. Is it true?/You don’t say. Did China hide it?
Ambassador Lu: What is the death toll in China? !
Moderator: What do you mean?
Ambassador Lu: China has not concealed it, and will never conceal it. China has always been transparent in information and the epidemic data is accurate. China revised the data of Wuhan epidemic cases and deaths last weekend, which is the embodiment of information transparency.
Moderator: We saw that the death toll suddenly increased by more than 1,300.
Ambassador Lu: This is normal.
Moderator: Really?
Ambassador Lu: Data revision is an international practice, and all countries, including France, may do so.
Moderator: Trump warned China that if China is knowingly responsible for the COVID-19 epidemic, it will have to bear the consequences. Does China have the responsibility of knowingly committing crimes? Trump said that he would investigate China, suggesting that the virus may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan. Is what he said true or false?
Ambassador Lu: The United States has no right to conduct an investigation in China, and the investigation should not be based on rumors. If they accuse China, they should produce evidence, but so far there is no evidence. I remember Trump himself said before he was elected president of the United States in September 2016: "You should not believe the so-called’ some information source’ of some unscrupulous media. If you don’t name the information source, then this source does not exist."
Moderator: I think this is also your answer. Two laboratories in Wu Hanyou?
Ambassador Lu: Yes, there are two laboratories in Wu Hanyou, one of which is the P4 laboratory established in cooperation with France. I visited it before its opening.
Moderator: There is also a laboratory 280 meters away from the seafood market.
Ambassador Lu: I don’t know if it is near the seafood market.
Host: Studying coronavirus in this laboratory, especially the virus carried by bats?
Ambassador Lu: According to media reports, this laboratory conducts virus research, but I don’t know the specific situation.
Moderator: Mr. Ambassador, can you confirm that the virus originated from wild animals and edible wild animals?
Ambassador Lu: The virus comes from wild animals, but it is not necessarily related to eating wild animals. There are some results in scientific research, but there is no unanimous conclusion that the source of virus infection comes from edible wild animals.
Moderator: Why did you hide the seriousness of the epidemic from the world in the first three weeks?
Ambassador Lu: China has nothing to hide. Let me explain to you what China did in those three weeks. On December 30th last year, the Wuhan Municipal Government announced the discovery of pneumonia cases with unknown causes. Since January 3rd this year, the World Health Organization has regularly notified the situation of this new infectious disease. On January 12th, China detected the virus gene sequence and shared it with WHO and other countries in the world. On January 23rd, China imposed a city closure on Wuhan and Hubei provinces. All countries know what happened in China, and China has nothing to hide.
Moderator: Can you explain why two doctors who made public the epidemic were regarded as spreading rumors? One was arrested, imprisoned and threatened, died in COVID-19, and was later rehabilitated. The other was interviewed and criticized by the head of the hospital supervision department in early January.
Ambassador Lu: I will explain to you. I have to correct one of your mistakes.
Moderator: Really? Which mistake?
Ambassador Lu: These doctors have not been arrested, and they are not the people who reported the epidemic. The first person to report the epidemic was Dr. Zhang Jixian, who reported it to the hospital and the government health system according to the procedure on December 27th last year. What you are talking about is Dr. Li Wenliang, who informed his colleagues around after learning some internal information.
Moderator: Then he was arrested and threatened for spreading false news.
Ambassador Lu: He was not arrested or threatened, but was questioned by the police, who took measures according to law. The government should control the spread of rumors, which is what all governments are doing.
Moderator: Is this a rumor?
Ambassador Lu: At first, the situation was unknown, even in western countries. For example, in the United States, if the police judge that the person opposite has a gun and fired in self-defense, and later find that the person does not have a gun, will the police be punished? He is following the rules. The same thing happened in Wuhan, China. The police acted according to the regulations.
Moderator: Last question, President Macron said in an interview with the Financial Times that "obviously something happened in China that we don’t know". What’s your response?
Ambassador Lu: I think what he said was a little distorted by the media. I read the full text of his interview, and I don’t think he deliberately accused China. He just said that countries with different systems can’t compare with each other. Because of different systems, one country cannot know everything that happens in other countries. President Macron said, "Something happened in China that we don’t know". Similarly, we can say that we don’t know everything that happened in France, which is up to the French government.
Moderator: Thank you, Ambassador Lu, for accepting the live interview with RMC TV and radio.
Ambassador Lu: You’re welcome.