Chinese Consulate In Germany Manages To Get Children’s Book On Covid-19 Pandemic Withdrawn

China has managed to get withdrawn a German children’s book authored by Constanze Steindamm for implying that the Covid-19 pandemic originated from Beijing.

The book’s title translates to ‘A Corona Rainbow for Anna and Moritz’ and it is described to be an affectionate non-fiction story that concerns around basic behavioural tips for daycare centres and elementary schools amidst the ongoing global pandemic.

Distributed by Carlsen publishing house, a part of the book states, “the virus (Covid-19) came from China and has spread from there all over the world.” However, the Chinese consulate in the German city of Hamburg threatened to file criminal charges against Carlsen and demanded a public apology from them.

They also asked for the book to be withdrawn, to which the publishing house later agreed, DW reports. Carlsen clarified that a new edition of the book that has a different wording regarding the origination of SARS-CoV2 is being developed currently.

The publishing house had earlier maintained that the original edition of the book was “explaining the far-reaching changes to everyday life during the pandemic as well as the hygiene precautions and behavioural measures that children and adults alike can take to protect themselves from infection."

However, Chinese pressure meant that the children’s book had to be pulled back eventually.

Previously, the middle kingdom had allegedly created hindrances in the functioning of a special expert team of the World Health Organization (WHO) that had travelled to China to trace the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.