Some QAnon believers are said to be spreading yet another conspiracy theory, this time revolving around former President Donald Trump's pronunciation of the word China.
They believe his unusual pronunciation of China as "Chy-na" is actually a secret code word meaning Ukraine - as opposed to the East Asian country.
The unsubstantiated theory is related to another conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was developed in bio-labs in Ukraine under the direction of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, or the “deep state”.
The conspiracy theory first came to people's attention when disinformation expert Marc Owen Jones reported on it. This was later picked up by Vice reporter David Gilbert.
According to the theory, a QAnon supporter says they "discovered" that there is an area in Ukraine named "chy-na," and believes the ex-POTUS was secretly referring to this location when he controversially used the term "China virus".
While many stated that Trump's use of the term was racially motivated, QAnon believers think he was actually foreshadowing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which started at the end of last month.
Another conspiracy theorist typed the word "chyna" into Google Translate and learned that in Ukrainian, the word means "price". They then associated that with one of Trump's previous statements in which he said China would "pay a big price" for the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reality is, though, the Google Map transliteration of that particular town – located just outside Lviv – is wrong. The "y" in the word "chyna" is supposed to represent a soft "i" - a sound which is rarely used in the English language.
What's more, the fact is that the word actually has multiple definitions, including "tire" and "rank".
Some QAnon followers believe Russia's war on Ukraine is justified. Adherents support the idea that Trump is secretly working with Russian President Vladimir Putin to seize the biological research labs in order to prove the coronavirus conspiracy.
Ukraine has biological research labs where pathogen studies are carried out, but there exists no evidence to substantiate the notion that biological weapons are being developed at these sites.
