China mocks US's Covid-19 battle in Lego-like video about ailing Statue of Liberty: 'Once Upon a Virus'
This power competition between the US and China ceasing anytime soon doesn't seem highly likely, with the latter's move to mock the first-world country's response to the novel coronavirus.
China's state-run news agency Xinhua published a short animated video titled 'Once Upon a Virus' on April 29. The video features Lego-like characters that represent both countries' trade insults. The video pans in on a terracotta warrior wearing a facemask, depicting the Chinese, and the Statue of Liberty portraying America, engaged in a war of words subjecting the origin of the viral disease which broke out in Wuhan, China and proliferated into a global pandemic.
The Chinese side mocks America's late response to containing the spread of the pandemic and focus' on lauds Beijing's response, all while a silent film score plays in the background. On April 30, US President Donald Trump asserted his confidence that the coronavirus originated in a virology lab in China, however his claim was baseless and he declined to describe any evidence.
In the video, red theatre-esque curtains are drawn back to reveal the two Lego-like figures standing face to face. "We discovered a new virus," says the terracotta warrior. "So what?" replies the Statue of Liberty. "It's only a flu," mocking President Trump's response downplaying the contagion when it first broke out. The warrior tries to caution the Statue of Liberty of the virus's fatal impact and describes the grave situation in China's outbreak but the latter only dismisses his warnings, resonating with Trump's various press conferences prior to the severity of the pandemic in the US.
At one point, the Statue of Liberty says, 'You lied... And because the W.H.O. agrees with China, we're cutting funding for the W.H.O."
"Are you listening to yourselves?" the warrior asks exasperatedly, as the Statue of Liberty turns red with a high temperature and gets hooked up to an intravenous drip. "We are always correct, even though we contradict ourselves," the Statue of Liberty responds. "That's what I love about you Americans, your consistency", says the warrior.
The United States and several other countries have repeatedly pointed fingers at China for misleading the world about the direness of the outbreak. There also demands being made for an international inquiry into the origin of the virus. Trump said this was China's tactic to ruin his re-election bid saying that Beijing "will do anything they can" to make him lose his reelection in November
Following the release of the video, Lego’s press office said in an emailed statement on May 2, “We weren’t involved in making the animation in any way.”