LONDON (UK) – The United Kingdom said on Thursday that China, Russia and Iran were looking to exploit the crisis triggered by the coronavirus outbreak. It also hinted that Beijing had used the crisis to impose a new security legislation on Hong Kong.
“Coronavirus and the challenges that it has created has created an opportunity or a perceived opportunity for different state and non-state actors through cyber, through other means,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News.
“I think we’ve seen it in relation to Hong Kong, I think some people are arguing – it’s difficult to glean whether it is true or not – that this is something, the national security legislation that is being put forward, is being done at a time when the world’s attention has been on coronavirus,” he said.
Across the world, governments have been severely strained by the coronavirus outbreak, which is seen as the biggest public health crisis since the 1918 influenza outbreak. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed China for the outbreak.
On the other hand, China and Russia have repeatedly denied that they are seeking to exploit the West and the allegations are the result of anti-Chinese or anti-Russia hysteria.
“We certainly know Russia is engaged systematically in misinformation and propaganda, through cyber and other ways. Others engage in the same too, China and Iran, but I don’t think it had any outcome on the electoral process in the UK,” Raab said.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field
