RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After implying that China may have created the novel coronavirus, President Jair Bolsonaro stressed that he did not mention the Asian country in his statement earlier on Wednesday in which he spoke of potential “bacteriological warfare.”
Asked by journalists about his morning statement at the Planalto Palace, Bolsonaro described the attempt by the press to create friction between Brazil and China as “malicious.”
“I did not mention the word China in the morning. I know what bacteriological, chemical, nuclear warfare is… I didn’t say anything else,” Bolsonaro told journalists at Galeão Airport in Rio de Janeiro, where he welcomed the arrival of Brazilian Robson Oliveira, who spent over 2 years imprisoned in Russia and was released after federal government mediation.
“It is very malicious to try to create friction with a country that is so important to us, and to them as well,” he added. “We have never distanced ourselves from China. It has legitimate interests in Brazil and we will continue selling to China, because it needs what we produce.”
Earlier, in an emotional speech, while not explicitly naming China, Bolsonaro insinuated that the novel coronavirus may have been created by the Asian country as part of “bacteriological warfare,” yet another statement with the potential to create friction with Brazil’s main supplier of vaccine raw materials.
“It is a new virus, no one knows if it was born in a laboratory or if it was born because some human ingested an unsuitable animal. But it is there. The military knows that it is bacteriological and radiological chemical warfare. Are we facing a new war? Which country has grown its GDP the most? I’m not going to tell you,” he stated.
Although the president did not directly mention the Asian country, China was the only country with a 2.3% increase in Gross Domestic Product in 2020.
The novel coronavirus was first detected in China’s Wuhan province in December 2019, but the country was also the first to control it with very harsh lockdown measures.
At the airport interview, Bolsonaro again criticized social isolation and movement restriction measures introduced by states and municipalities to contain Covid-19, arguing that they “steal jobs” and undermine the economy.
“This is a crime they are committing in Brazil,” he said. “Brazil has to go back to work and can’t get into more debt.”
In his speech the previous day, Bolsonaro also said he was ready to issue a decree to “guarantee the right to come and go,” and said that if the text is published “it will not be contested in any court.” The decree, he said, would replicate sections of Article 5 of the 1988 Constitution, which addresses citizen’s individual guarantees and rights.