‘Without any sympathy and empathy’: China furious at Danish newspaper over image of flag with coronavirus

The Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen has demanded an apology from Danish newspaper Jyllands-posten for publishing a Chinese flag with the coronavirus on it.

The image by Niels Bo Bojesen featured the Chinese flag with the yellow stars replaced with pictures of the novel coronavirus. The newspaper published the cartoon in their ‘Today’s Cartoon’ section with a disclaimer saying that the cartoon represented the artist’s personal interpretation, which may differ from the position of the paper.

Despite this, the Chinese Embassy in Denmark called on Jyllands-posten and Bojesen to immediately apologize to the Chinese people. The embassy spokesman reminded the paper that the outbreak has so far killed over a hundred people in China, and that all efforts are underway to fight the epidemic. This “satire drawing,” he added, is an insult to China and hurts the feelings of the Chinese people.

Without any sympathy and empathy, it has crossed the bottom line of civilized society and the ethical boundary of free speech and offends human conscience.

The novel coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan, central China, in December 2019. Beijing has so far confirmed 4,515 cases of the virus, with 106 dead and many cities in central Hubei province where the virus originated on lockdown.

This is not the first time that Jylland-posten has offended people abroad. In 2005, the paper published a series of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed, which sparked riots in the Muslim world. The Danish prime minister at the time called it Denmark’s worst international relations incident since WWII.

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