Fact Check: No, China Is Not Moving Court To Kill 20,000 Coronavirus Patients

One of our community members sent this on our WhatsApp fact-check no. 6364000343 and asked us to verify the information.

The Logical Indian found that on February 5, 2020, the website AB-TC, also known as City News, published an article that claimed Chinese officials were seeking approval from the Supreme People's Court to start the mass killing of 20,000 people infected with the new coronavirus in an attempt to contain the disease.

The questionable website ab-tc.com has a history of publishing hoaxes and misinformation.

Another website, 'Nsemgh.com' published an article with a similar title on February 6, 2020.

Highlights Of The Article:

'China seeks the court's approval to kill over 20,000 coronavirus patients to avoid further spread of the virus.

The highest level of court in China, Supreme People's Court, is expected to give an approval on Friday for the mass killing of coronavirus patients in China as sure means of controlling the spread of the deadly virus.

The State has argued that China is on the verge of losing its health workers to Coronavirus as at least 20 health workers contract the virus daily.

The website, which did not cite a single official Chinese source, claimed China had mentioned in a document that it may 'lose its entire citizens if the few affected patients do not sacrifice their lives to save health workers and a billion others.'

The news was circulated all over social media.

Claim:

China seeks court approval to kill over 20,000 Coronavirus patients.

Fact Check:

This claim is not backed by any factual proof.

The alarming content was published attributing it to a 'Local Correspondent,' i.e without a byline.

Like most of the other articles on this website, this article contains no backlinks to supporting evidence. Even when the article mentions secondary sources, such as a "document" or a "press conference," they provide no evidence to show that these items actually exist or took place. The article is also suspiciously void of specifics. AB-TC reports that "the state" or "the court" or an "official" made a statement, but doesn't provide any direct quotes or names in its report.

US fact-checking website, Snopes, which also debunked the same claim said that there was no mention of this supposed court case on the Supreme People's website.

On the Official website of the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China, only the daily brief on Coronavirus outbreak was available. There was no mention of this shocking news.

AB-TC City News can't be called a credible source of news.

Calling out one of the articles published on the above website, the Singapore government on January 30, 2020, also issued corrections and clarifications regarding the false news.

It turns out that AB-TC is the sole source of this rumour.

Ergo, 'China seeks court approval to kill over 20,000 coronavirus patients' is not a fact and is a piece of fake news.

At the time of writing this article, 31,526 cases of coronavirus have been reported worldwide, of this 1,568 people have recovered. The death toll stands at 638.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343

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