A far-left congressional candidate backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani peddled a crackpot COVID-19 theory that said the virus originated in France – and quoted a Chinese communist propaganda organ as evidence.
Candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier spewed the bizarre claim in an unearthed tweet from 2020, citing as her source the Qiao Collective, a known propaganda organ for China.
“So you mean that once again it was PoC who intervened and stopped the spread of a European plague? Wow. Shocked,” Avila Chevalier said in a May 10, 2020 tweet, apparently referring to “people of color.”
Qiao said earlier that day that “Hospitals in France confirmed that France had COVID-19 outbreaks in November, a month before China.”
Collective describes itself as “a grassroots media organization of Chinese diaspora writers, artists, and researchers dedicated to challenging Western media narratives and U.S. aggression against China.”
“We seek to be a bridge between the U.S. left and China’s rich Marxist, anti-imperialist political work and thought in order to foster critical consideration of the role of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics in contemporary geopolitics.”
The group said a majority of its members are diaspora Chinese people living in the West.
The France first theory has been widely debunked.
There’s a wide consensus in the scientific and intelligence communities that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China — whether from a wholesale market or a lab leak in close proximity in Wuhan.
Avila Chevalier, 32, is seeking to topple veteran Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the 13th House district that covers the northern Manhattan neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, Washington Heights/Inwood and the northwest Bronx.
She is endorsed by Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America.
State Democratic Party chairman Jay Jacobs, an Espaillat backer, said Avila Chevalier is not ready for prime time after hearing of her peddling a COVID-19 conspiracy theory during the peak of the pandemic.
“These are serious times. We need serious people. This not an example of a serious thinker. This is not evidence of a serious person,” Jacobs said.
“Adriano Espaillat has established himself as a serious legislator working to improve people’s lives.”
Jacobs said it “doesn’t make sense” for Mamdani or any other politico not to be standing with Espaillat, 71, who is seeking a sixth term and is chairman of the House Hispanic Caucus..
The revelation of DAC peddling Chinese Communist Party propaganda comes as the CCP tries to make inroads in New York City and the United States writ large through spies and an elaborate network of affiliated or sympathetic left wing groups.
The Avila Chevalier campaign had no immediate comment.
She’s already on the defensive about other tweets posted within the past five years that Espaillat highlighted in an attack ad — including one where DAC slammed black and Arab men for “fetishizing ugly colonizer women.”
Referring to former vice president and 2024 Democratic White House nominee Kamala Harris, DAC said, “I have no nuance to add. F—k Kamala Harris.”
As for former President Joe Biden, she said, “I will never give my vote to a rapist.”
Biden has vehemently denied allegations from a former Senate aide that he sexually assaulted her in 1993 and has never been charged with a crime over the allegations.
Avila Chevalier also joked about disrespecting the American flag.
“I forget to get napkins,” she said in another of many deleted social media posts. “So I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me.”
The statement was accompanied by a smile emoji.
