Even for a regime that views deception as a de facto constitution, you’d think that the Chinese Communist Party would have a little more humility when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.
After all, what started as an epidemic in Wuhan city was only able to become a global pandemic because China failed to contain the outbreak. Beijing lied about the early transmission data, then had the gall to complain when necessary travel bans were imposed on it. Oh, and then China engaged in a data and human records purge of its activities at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The purpose behind this cover-up remains unclear, but China wanted to hide something about that level four bio agent facility.
But no, humility is not the Chinese Communist Party way.
Instead, Xi Jinping’s regime has decided to blame the coronavirus chaos on the United States. Chinese state media is now full of very thinly veiled celebration at the more than 200,000 Americans who have died as a result of the virus. And China’s so-called wolf warrior diplomats regularly take to social media to observe how China has done a much better job controlling the virus than the U.S. In the strictest sense of control, this may or may not be true. But what is true is that China lost many tens of thousands more of its citizens to the virus than it is willing to admit.
We shouldn’t forget this. Nor should we forgive the outrageous propaganda China is now pumping out to the world. Take the Global Times editorial on Wednesday that blared, “In the battle between the people and virus, the former have suffered a defeat. The U.S., as the worst-hit but most powerful country, should take the blame.” The editorial continued, arguing that thanks to “strong disruption from Washington, political disputes have outweighed public health cooperation, which has led to more infections and deaths.”
China’s lament, here, is that the U.S. refused to support its whitewash efforts over the origins of the virus, its handling of the original outbreak, and its use of the World Health Organization as a party machine. But these lies must not stand. It’s not just that they are lies or that they come from a regime that lied about the virus, then demanded international borders remain open. It’s that Xi’s regime also deliberately made it harder for the rest of the world to save lives. Beijing did so when it so unrepentantly hoarded personal protective equipment, then sold shoddy rip-off versions of that lifesaving equipment. It’s the equivalent of a thief blaming the police for his crimes because they didn’t catch him quick enough.
Still, the delusional rhetoric is just part and parcel with China’s grand ambitions for deception. Take Xi’s latest gambit to regain the world’s trust, that being his deceptive pledge to make China carbon neutral by 2060. Those in the media who lap up this intellectual detritus might do better to contrast Xi’s words with the fact that Beijing has constructed hundreds of new and dirty coal power plants in just the past three years.
Conclusion: Ignore Xi’s rhetoric, and beware his gifts.
