Virus: Beijing judges son Bolsonaro's words "immoral"

China castigated "immoral" comments on Friday after one of the sons of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused Beijing of having concealed information about the Covid-19, opening a diplomatic crisis with the Asian giant.

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In Brasilia, President Jair Bolsonaro then tried to calm the controversy with this great business partner from Brazil, without however condemning the words of his son Eduardo, MP. "Once again, a dictatorship preferred to hide something serious to avoid criticism, when it could have saved countless lives," Eduardo Bolsonaro, who is considered to be closely linked to movements, wrote on Wednesday. American ultra-right.

In his message, the third son of the Brazilian president drew a parallel with "the Soviet dictatorship" which had initially hidden the extent of the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl in 1986.

Beijing shows teeth

Invited to react, a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Geng Shuang, denounced the remarks "immoral and irresponsible". "Since the start of the epidemic, China has adopted the strictest, most comprehensive and comprehensive prevention and control measures in an open, transparent and responsible manner," said Geng.

The day before, Chinese Ambassador to Brazil, Yang Wanming, had asked Eduardo Bolsonaro "to apologize to the Chinese people". He also retweeted a message from a surfer who called the Bolsonaro family "the great poison of Brazil", according to a screenshot taken by the Brazilian media, before this und diplomatic message was erased.

Jair Bolsonaro spoke on Friday in hopes of easing tensions, saying "everything is going very well between the Brazilian government and China." "There is no problem with China, zero problem," he insisted. "If I have to call the Chinese president (Xi Jinping), I will call him without problem."

The day before, his Minister of Foreign Affairs Ernesto Araujo had distanced himself from Eduardo Bolsonaro, explaining that the deputy's statements "did not reflect the position of Brazil". However, he had asked the Chinese ambassador to "retract" for the publication of "offensive" messages against President Bolsonaro.

China is Brazil's first trading partner, which exports raw materials there, in particular iron ore, meat and soybeans.