Now that China’s fever has broken in terms of its mismanagement of the novel coronavirus, the Chinese Communist Party has the strength to raise its finger to point blame.
Last week, the U.S. State Department summoned Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai after Chinese Foreign Minister Zhao Lijian spread a conspiracy theory on Twitter. “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” he wrote. “Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!” Undeterred, the Chinese ambassador to South Africa later tweeted, “More evidence suggests that the virus was not originated at the seafood market in Wuhan at all, not to mention the so called ‘made in China.’”
It’s to be expected that the Chinese Communist Party is pushing disinformation around its mishandling of the virus that originated within its country’s borders. What’s worse is American journalists running similar cover for the party.
New York Times reporter Ian Johnson wrote a piece last week entitled “China Bought the West Time. The West Squandered It.” Not to be outdone, Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum authored her own called “The Coronavirus Called America’s Bluff.” Using a pro-colonialism hook (I’m sure that will go over well at Upper East Side cocktail parties), Applebaum’s argument is nothing more than an elaborate bit of whataboutism, essentially claiming that while China’s response was bad, President Trump’s response could potentially be much worse and thus put us on par with China, as if the Trump administration and the Chinese are equally situated in the spread of the virus.
And demonstrating an affinity for control, New York Times reporter Donald McNeil applauded China’s handling of the virus on Rachel Maddow’s program, assuring audiences those mass camps where people were forcibly relocated were not concentration camps. Further, NBC News ran an opinion piece titled “Coronavirus in China kept me under quarantine. I felt safer than back here in the U.S.” Nothing says comfort and safety like the weighted blanket of Chinese authoritarianism — what that opinion writer concedes can be perhaps “overzealous.”
From a global response perspective, it was widely reported that China was sending “experts, ventilators, and masks to Italy.” Applebaum and many others applauded the move as a demonstration of Chinese global leadership dwarfing the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. Of course, this framing lacked fundamental context. As the Washington Post later reported, “Those shipments of goods are, in at least some cases, not donations but rather exports of goods for purchase. And 1,000 ventilators is a decent deal for a country trying to get its business sector restarted.”
The pivot toward appearing as the global leader in combating the coronavirus is an obvious rebrand opportunity for Chinese President Xi Jinping. Only weeks ago, Xi was rightly hearing of in-party chatter about his fumbling of the virus. Now, with the help of some useful fools in American media, the Chinese have even managed to claim that any discussion of the “Wuhan coronavirus” smacks of racism.
Last week, the Atlantic’s David Frum tweeted: “Nobody calls the 1919-20 pandemic the Spanish flu anymore, and not because we are soft on the Inquisition. It’s just not a useful way to name a disease.” Yes, yes, they do.
Others declared that Trump, Republican lawmakers, and anyone who called the disease anything but “COVID-19” are “racist,” “xenophobic,” and other such superlatives of wrongthink. Forget that as recently as two months ago, the Atlantic, the New York Times, the World Health Organization, and the rest now crying foul were all calling the illness the Wuhan coronavirus and identifying its point of origin with nary a worry. In coming to the Chinese Communist Party’s defense, they have assisted in completing the feedback loop with Xinhua News, a party mouthpiece, tweeting, “Racism is not the right tool to cover your own incompetence.” Good job, everyone.
Let’s be clear: The virus began in China. Chinese scientists knew of the virus as early as December and were ordered to cover it up and destroy evidence. Doctors and whistleblowers have been silenced (in at least one case, even dying of the virus) or disappeared. People have been dragged out of their homes into forced quarantine. Medical professionals have cast doubt on the overall mortality statistics coming out of Wuhan. One would think that the State Department issuing an informal slap on the wrist to the Chinese for falsely accusing the U.S. Army of creating the virus and planting it in Wuhan would at least give public intellectuals some pause before parroting communist talking points. But, alas, it’s 2020, and Trump is the president.
The propaganda machine will only get worse in the weeks and months ahead as the surgical masks are removed across China. Xinhua News, in a piece titled “Be Bold: The World Owes China a ‘Thank You,’” has already said the United States owes China an apology and that “the world should thank China for its gargantuan efforts and sacrifices to prevent the spread of the disease to other countries, an act that is really startling the universe and moving the gods.” And to be clear, this is a “say thank you, or else,” type of situation, as the Chinese have threatened pharmaceutical export controls that will “plunge [the U.S.] into the mighty sea of coronavirus.” Hopefully, these folks who have been running cover for the Chinese can swim.
Going forward, keep in perspective the facts, Trump’s and local governments’ response to the pandemic, and where this all began. Deviating from the facts as they are is either lowbrow anti-Trumpism or, worse, aiding and abetting the Chinese propaganda shell game. Never forget: The devil works hard, but the Chinese Communist Party works harder.
Tyler Grant is a writer quarantined in New York.
