China's great achievements over the coronavirus outbreak is not easy for the world to digest. The pandemic has crippled the entire world, with the number of confirmed cases reaching 823,479, and the death toll at 40,708 as of 1:55 a.m., April 1, Beijing Time (according to Johns Hopkins University, the statistics are subject to change over time). China was the first country to face the outbreak and the first country to date that has successfully brought it under control.

It was not an easy task, and China went on a war footing for a couple of months to defeat it. After mobilizing national resources, bringing in the armed forces, implementing a science and technology based approach, and with the media cooperating well, 3,314 precious lives were still sacrificed and enormous economic losses suffered before the outbreak could be brought under control.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised Chinese achievements and said that since the outbreak of the new epidemic, China has built up a strong first line of defense against the international spread of diseases through its strict epidemic prevention measures and made great contributions to the worldwide war against the epidemic. On March 19, the Chinese mainland reported zero new confirmed or suspected local cases for the first time. "This is an amazing achievement," he said.

While China was engaged in its fight against coronavirus, some nations were busy blaming and bashing China. Some international leaders made derogatory remarks against China, and cases of discrimination against Chinese people were also reported. Some Western media outlets published anti-China and humiliating remarks and cartoons.

Similarly, anti-China media outlets set up by the Falun Gong cult outside China recently collaborated with various forces such as Taiwan and Hong Kong separatists to change the previously declared "Wuhan Virus" and "China Virus" into "CPC (Communist Party of China) Virus" and performed a farce in naming the virus.

The so-called "virus of the Communist Party of China" is a farce directed and staged by the Falun Gong, a cult organization banned by China in 1999, to link up with anti-China forces.

On March 17, an anti-China Twitter account named "Raymond" took advantage of a so-called "Internet investigation" to counter WHO virus naming regulations and maliciously led the results of the "investigation" to naming it "CPC virus".

The accounts that forwarded the tweet are almost all anti-China accounts, which are also mixed with many Hong Kong separatists. The initiator, Raymond, who has a Chinese face and speaks fluent Chinese, rails against China in almost every tweet. A closer look at the social circle of the account revealed that it was full of many "Falun Gong" accounts and various anti-China accounts on the platform of Falun Gong. It was not difficult to see that this was a Falun Gong insider.

Viruses have no borders, and their attacks on humans do not distinguish by race. When the WHO has already named a novel coronavirus and its origin has yet to be scientifically proven, it is disregarding common sense and a betrayal of conscience to persist in using words with discriminatory implications to label the outbreak.

In February, the WHO named the novel coronavirus "COVID-19," and made it clear: "[the name] prevents people from using other inaccurate or stigmatizing names. We need a name that does not allude to any geographical location, animal, person, or group."

It is expected that the civilized world will stop spreading anti-China sentiments and make use of Chinese experience as guidelines to defeat COVID-19.

The opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to People's Daily Online.

Zamir Ahmed Awan is a senior fellow with the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) and a sinologist at the National University of Sciences and Technology in Pakistan. E-mail: [email protected]