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.