Clear example of mainstream media intentionally spreading a narrative to the ignorant population to cause sinophobia and fear.

it's mind boggling how easy it is to do.

I do a lot of invasive species management. Many of the common names are "exotic" sounding and include "Asian", "Chinese", "Japanese" etc because they were marketed this way in the 20th century to appeal to gardeners and land managers who didn't know better and just wanted fast growing, pretty plants.

Now, in the current atmosphere of sinophobia I have often heard someone imply these invasives were deliberate sabotage. But it was westerners who imported these things. We wanted them, or at least wanted the plant that hosted the insect, or whatever. Also, by that logic we have "sabotaged" China with our invasives.

I feel like as a society we are so inarticulate, hateful, and short-sighted that we no longer have the ability to solve complex problems.

BBC accused of being a western propaganda outlet.