East Asia Watch: China faces heat over coronavirus control

Chinese envoys are in damage control mode in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, but longstanding mistrust prevents their messages from getting across to the West

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BEIJING • Rising to her feet from among the audience and speaking in English in a measured, soft tone, Ms Fu Ying, a Chinese diplomat turned lawmaker, posed a question to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a panel at the Munich Security Conference in Germany this month.

"Do you really think that the (United States) democratic system is so fragile that it could be threatened by this single high-tech company, Huawei?" the grey-haired, 67-year-old Ms Fu asked, hitting back at Ms Pelosi's assertion that "China is seeking to export its digital autocracy" through the telecommunications giant.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 25, 2020, with the headline East Asia Watch: China faces heat over coronavirus control. Subscribe