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| - Fact Check: Did Germany send China a £130 billion bill for coronavirus damages?
A news report by Express whose display headline claims that Germany has sent China a £130 billion bill for coronavirus damages has gone viral on social media.
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India Today Fact Check
A German newspaper drew up a mock bill after assessing damages caused by Covid-19 in Germany. The German government has not sent the bill.
A news report by Express whose display headline claims that Germany has sent China a £130 billion bill for coronavirus damages has gone viral on social media. The display picture of the article is of German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Social media users, while sharing the article, have demanded that since Angela Merkel’s Germany has sent China an invoice of £130 billion for coronavirus damages, India should do the same and send Beijing an invoice of £300 billion. The archived version of the post can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the headline of Express’s article is misleading. The German government has not sent any such bill to China. It was actually a tabloid newspaper in Germany called “Bild” which issued a mock bill to China after assessing damages to the country’s economy due to Covid-19. The newspaper said China owes Berlin around 149 billion (£130 billion) for coronavirus damages.
The misleading post is being widely circulated on Facebook and Twitter.
Germany sends Invoice of $130 billion to Beijing for damages due #coronavirus pandemic.
1st Nation to do so. BRAVO@realDonaldTrump @narendramodi #WorldLeaders
World MUST unite, hold #China accountable for mass massacre. Take action against #WHO head.https://t.co/xYPNixH3GB — Harinder S Sikka (@sikka_harinder) April 20, 2020
Viral article
The “Express” article says in the very first paragraph that “Bild” has put together a £130 billion invoice that Beijing “owes” Berlin, but the misleading display headline, along with Merkel’s photo, gave the impression that the German government had sent the bill to China.
The inside headline of the article was later changed with a clarification that it was not the German government that estimated the bill for coronavirus damages (that should be paid by China), but rather the leading German news publication “Bild”.
Some global media houses had also covered the news that “Bild” demanded China pay billions in coronavirus damages.
Fact-check website Full Fact
As of April 21 evening, Germany reported almost 1.5 lakh coronavirus cases with close to 5,000 deaths. More than 95,000 people have also recovered.
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