The intelligentsia’s love affair with the Chinese Communist Party shows no sign of cooling, not even for a viral pandemic enabled by China’s ruling officials.

The Atlantic published an op-ed this weekend arguing that the United States has a lot to learn from China when it comes to regulating online speech. Sadly, it is nothing new for ostensibly free academics – and members of the free press, for that matter – to praise the single-party state where dissent is brutally and violently suppressed.