A state-run Chinese newspaper has lashed out at Boris Johnson’s coronavirus response as a “mess” that needs “a miracle” to fix.
Global Times, a tabloid managed by the Chinese Communist Party, also accused the UK Government of being “flippant” and “ill-prepared” and putting the economy before controlling the virus.
The Beijing outlet launched the scathing attack after the Prime Minister announced that millions of England’s workforce could return to work on Wednesday if they could not do so from home.
Mr Johnson’s lockdown "roadmap", which also relaxes rules on exercise and socialising in parks, saw some roads and Tube trains packed with commuters this week.
Its editors also scolded the PM for being slow to roll out a full contact tracing strategy and for initially pursuing a “herd immunity” approach.
The Government's test, track and trace programme, which holds the breakthrough to getting the country out of its two month lockdown, is currently only in a trial phase with an NHS app on the Isle of Wight.
"It is startling to see the UK, once on which the sun never set, acting poorly in this global fight against the deadly coronavirus,” the Global Times’ column said.
The paper, which brands itself China's "most belligerent tabloid", also hit out at Downing Street for having “wasted a few weeks’ time when China fought hard against the virus."
It added: "Scholarly analyses have all suggested that the UK government's response to the crisis was as flippant and ill-prepared as that of the US..."
The piece concluded: "The UK is not supposed to end up like this. After all, it is where the Industrial Revolution started. It has abundant capital and medical resources.
"To put it in Chinese proverbs, it didn't play well despite having good cards in hand."
The furious swipe came as China faces mounting criticism from the West, with Covid-19 is widely thought to have began in a ‘wet market’ where live animals are traded in Wuhan, Hubei province.
