China yesterday accused “some Western media” of bias, smears and political manipulation in their coverage of its abrupt ending of its strict “zero COVID-19” policy, as it issued a vigorous defense of actions taken to prepare for the change of strategy.
Last month’s move to end mass testing and quarantines led to a sharp rise in cases, with some hospitals and crematoriums overwhelmed with victims.
An editorial in the People’s Daily outlined what it called China’s “optimization and control measures,” and criticized reports by media outlets it did not identify as “completely biased hype, smear and political manipulation with ulterior motives.”
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Since the initial wave of new cases, life in much of China has largely returned to normal, although officials have expressed concern about a further spread of the virus into the countryside during the Lunar New Year travel rush underway.
Despite that, the editorial said many localities have “passed the peak of the epidemic, and production and life are speeding up to return to normal.”
The “zero COVID-19” strategy sought to track and isolate every case of infection, along with those who had contact with them.
China strongly defended the policy, but began dismantling it under economic pressure and after rare street protests broke out in Beijing and other major cities denouncing the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
On Jan. 8, Beijing took the further step of eliminating the requirement that those arriving from abroad undergo lengthy and expensive quarantines.
That made the abrupt shift to a policy of merely seeking to prevent the most serious cases all the more jarring for the population, many of whom have defied censors to express anger online.
China also ceased publishing figures on new cases and deaths, which it had long been suspected of underreporting, leading to complaints from the WHO and foreign nations about a lack of transparency.
Estimates now put numbers of new cases at tens of thousands a day, with up to 85 percent of the population in some provinces having become infected.
That defensive attitude was reflected in the People’s Daily editorial, which said: “Thanks to meticulous medical preparations, sufficient production capacity reserves, and strong organizational planning and equipment, China has smoothly passed the adaptation period after the ‘transition’ and ‘shift’ of the epidemic prevention policy.”
“In the face of China’s prevention and control achievements, any political manipulation is pale and powerless,” it added, citing endorsements from academics in Nigeria, Kenya and Russia, all close Chinese diplomatic partners. “All parties should focus on fighting the epidemic itself, avoid any words or deeds that politicize the epidemic, strengthen solidarity and cooperation, and work together to defeat the epidemic.”
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