Lego says it had nothing to do with a Chinese state media video animation attacking Trump's coronavirus response
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The Lego Group is distancing itself from a Chinese state media animation that uses its pieces to attack the US response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The two-minute video, posted by the state-run Xinhua News Agency on Thursday, follows a timeline of key events in the pandemic so far and uses two Lego figures — one dressed as the Statue of Liberty, and another dressed in medical scrubs — apparently to represent the US and China.
Watch it here:—China Xinhua News (@XHNews) April 30, 2020In the animation — designed as a debate between the two toy figures — China accuses the US of ignoring the early warning signs of the virus in December 2019 and dismissing it as being "just a flu."
It also references China's building two hospitals in Wuhan within ten days in February, the surge of infections in Italy in March, and Trump's announcing he would halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) in April.
At one point, the Statue of Liberty accuses the other Lego toy of building a "concentration camp" in an apparent reference to US criticism over China's reeducation camps in Xinjiang, where at least one million Uighur Muslims have been detained.Toward the end of the video, the Statue of Liberty says: "We are always correct even though we contradict ourselves," to which the masked Lego figure replies: "That's what I love best about Americans... your consistency."
The animation published as US-China relations appear to be deteriorating.
Trump has flip-flopped on his attitude to China over the course of the pandemic, having in January praised the country and president Xi Jinping's response.Trump has since repeatedly attacked China's handling of the outbreak, even saying that it may have started the virus deliberately.
Earlier this week he also suggested that China's handling of the novel coronavirus is proof that Beijing "will do anything they can" to make sure he isn't reelected in November.
On Thursday, the White House announced it's working on a plan to punish China for the coronavirus, which include new trade sanctions, according to CNN. The yearslong US-China trade dispute has not been resolved.Copyright © 2021. Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.For reprint rights. Times Syndication Service.
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