The question arises: What mistake has China made in letting a dangerous epidemic spread globally?
The strict control of the information of the Communist Party of China as well as the excessive concern about social instability are the main reasons why the Covid-19 epidemic has not been contained in the right time of its beginning, according to scholars studying Chinese politics.
However, according to experts, the dictatorship of China is capable of mobilizing forces to quell the disease so the Covid-19 crisis is hard to make the regime to fall.
In South China Morning Post, Patrick Mendis, a former visiting professor of economic diplomacy at Wuhan University and a former Harvard University student, analyzed the “three mistakes made by the Chinese government in dealing with corona virus crisis.”
Because of the Chinese Communist Party’s tight grip on power, Professor Mendis said it would not be surprising if they sacrificed the health of people in the corona virus crisis to protect the regime.
“Indeed, although China responded more quickly to the corona epidemic than the SARS epidemic of 2002-2003, this epidemic also exposed an inherent flaw in the Chinese system with gagging and punish those who deviate from the mainstream view,” he wrote.
According to the professor, although the SARS disaster shows the need to be more open and responsible, China has made similar mistakes in the current crisis although it desires to see the other end.
The first mistake was to shoot down the announcer, Mendis analyzed. Li Wen Liang – a young ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital – first shared his concern on Dec 30, 2019 with a group of former classmates on WeChat. At that time, corona virus was not yet identified.
Dr. Li then warned of an SARS-like outbreak, and suggested that classmates take stricter measures to prevent infection in the hospitals where they worked.
However, screenshots of this private conversation spread and caught the attention of Dr. Ly’s superiors. The reward for this professional vigilance by Dr. Ly is an order from the hospital to ask him to write a self-criticism review. Local police also interrogated him and claimed that he “caused a serious social disorder.”
Dr. Li was forced to give definite answers to two questions: “Can you stop your illegal behavior?” and “Do you understand that you will be punished if you do not stop this behavior?” With these two responses, the corona virus was facilitated to spread without being stopped in the next few weeks, Professor Mendis said.
This leads to the second mistake: a perfect storm is taking shape, according to the professor. That’s when the Baiyun District in Wuhan City prepared for the annual grand feast. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the party, local organizers planned to break the world record for the number of dishes served at a party.
One reason why the mayor of Wuhan did not follow the advice of health professionals, was his concern that “escalating the prevention of epidemics could harm the local economy and social stability.”
Mr. Mendis said that this decision has the effect of escalating the disease twice. “This decision would have two escalatory effects. First, it accelerated the spread of the virus, given that members of some 40,000 families prepared the food for the banquet, many of whom showed up to eat it.
Second, it facilitated the spread of the virus around the world. The banquet was followed by an exodus of about five million people from the city, which helped transport the virus beyond Hubei province and China.”
“The Chinese Supreme Court has finally said that the Wuhan police should be more tolerant of those who sounded the alarm bells about the plague, instead of accusing them of spreading rumors. This is a gesture of clearly recognizing the truth in the field. This leads to the third mistake, ”he continued.
As he explained, when the cover-up failed, China gradually and reluctantly admitted it had responded incompletely before the crisis.
“To such a degree of restriction and censorship, not to mention the threat to public health outside China, there has been widespread condemnation not only of Dr. Li’s gag, but also to the Chinese government’s uncertain response to the whole crisis,” Mendis wrote.
“The CPC has strict control over what the domestic public sees and hears; In the end, controlling propaganda is paramount for Beijing’s leadership to be successful. Contagious diseases are, however, indifferent to ideologies. Sometimes, a message is simply too critical to ignore or cover up,” he continued.
According to the professor, the best possible policy is what Dr. Li, who warned of the last bid, mentioned. In an interview with the New York Times before his death, Dr. Li said, “If officials disclose information about the disease earlier, I think it will be much better. There is a need for more openness and transparency.”
“What do Chinese censors think when they seek to block information in such a clear public health crisis? One explanation is that they did not initially grasp the severity of the problem because there was no clear evidence of human-to-human spread during the early days of the epidemic.”
“The authorities’ knowledge of the human-to-human spread of the virus may not be accurate, but they sounded an alarm,” said Professor Wenfang Tang, president of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Science. Hong Kong Technology concludes.
“Some Wuhan officials may be overly confident that China’s fully capable authoritarian political system can handle any crisis,” he wrote.
According to him, although more evidence is needed to conclude that news censorship is the reason for the corona virus spread, “the more damage is obvious the breakdown of public trust.” People watched the number of cases rise in terror.
He cited that people’s mourning over Dr. Lee’s death became a public campaign against the government’s awkwardness. The Chinese social network is filled with grief for Dr. Li and sarcastic comments about the ignorance, helplessness, corruption, and arrogance of local officials.
“The explosion of public criticism has been a reaction to strict control in the name of social stability and national security since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012,” he wrote.
“Some people criticize Xi Jinping for strict control, while others call for the protection of the right to freedom of expression as a basic right of citizens. The comments on social media leave us with the impression that people’s support for the government has decreased significantly,” Professor Tang wrote in his analysis.
In addition, they have used state-controlled media to demonstrate the Party’s strong leadership in curbing viruses, finding new treatments, raising public trust and promote national solidarity, according to Tang. Many Chinese people who follow official news may still believe in the government, while the online community may not, he said.
He said the Beijing authorities “have shown they are able to respond quickly to public opinion.” “They dispatched a working group from Beijing to Wuhan to investigate the handling of Dr. Li, compensate his family after his death was considered injury in the workplace, firing local officials judged to be powerless by the public and announcing new policies to oversee local government agencies, ”he pointed out.
“These measures can alleviate public outrage. It seems unlikely that Beijing’s dictatorship will collapse as a result of clumsy disease treatment.”
“The authoritarian regime is a double-edged sword. It has the ability to mobilize nations, allocate resources quickly and carry out large-scale projects, but not the ability to manage everything on a micro level. Indeed, it could build a 1,000-bed hospital in 10 days but couldn’t deal with the outbreak.
The situation of concealment and fabrication of fake information is not only in China, but also in Vietnam – where there is similar mechanism under communism. They find ways to conceal information in order to protect dictatorship from the wave of anger of millions of people.
Corona virus from China has spread to Vietnam, people only have to struggle with difficulties and update international information to protect themselves and their families from imminent danger.
Thu Thuy from Hochiminh city – Thoibao.de (Translated)
