Zero contagion, with lies and censorship China manages to disappear from the Covid “rankings”. And the West, is it drinking it?
Impressive data and photos that the official media of the People's Republic of China disseminate with both hands, concerning the Covid-19 pandemic that is bringing all countries to their knees. All except, precisely, China.
Images appear of overflowing crowds massed in Beijing, Shanghai and other metropolises to celebrate the birth of the Republic, which was proclaimed by Mao Zedong on October 1, 1949. Of interminable columns that run through the Great Wall with people pressed beyond belief. Zero social distancing, and many don't even wear a mask.
In comparison, the reviled European and American nightlife seem harmless outings, even if the police and military closely monitor them and in many cases act to prevent them. With us, by now, it is also becoming difficult to have a coffee or an aperitif, since in these cases it is necessary to temporarily remove the mask.
In the Land of the Dragon, on the other hand, there seems to be an idyllic situation. In Wuhan, the city of origin of the epidemic, everything is normal and citizens can safely walk the streets where, until a few months ago, people collapsed to the ground electrocuted by the virus.
Mass tourism has also restarted, with 637 million trips from October 1st to today. The Ministry of Tourism has in fact explained that "the people needed a long-awaited leisure break". So free everyone. The Chinese, lucky them, can return to travel peacefully, as the pandemic is only a thing of the past.
And the second wave that scares other nations so much? In China there is officially no trace of it: zero infections. The few who register are due to citizens returning from abroad, or to foreigners who still have the courage to go to the People's Republic for work reasons.
Meanwhile, the number of infections and deaths has remained incredibly low. For a long time now, the People's Republic has disappeared from the world ranking that records these tragic data.
Faced with 7.5 million infections in the US, 6.8 million in India, 5 million in Brazil and 1.2 million in Russia, in China the numbers are always the same as when the pandemic broke out: 85,000 infections, 4,634 deaths .
Continuing to follow the Beijing narrative, the credit goes exclusively to the Communist Party, which immediately faced the emergency by preventing the spread of the infection and immediately isolating the outbreaks that arose.
The Party-State would therefore have managed to keep the situation under complete control, perhaps resorting to draconian methods, but always in the name and for the good of the people. In short, Covid-19 also obeys the Party and Xi Jinping. He harasses everyone else, but leaves the Chinese alone as he has understood that the Party's shield is unsurpassable.
It would be funny listening to such nonsense, but the situation is too tragic to give vent to laughter. Don't forget, in fact, that the Chinese government totally controls its internal Internet, and has made it even more waterproof than it was in the past. Western media and social networks are banned, and citizens only learn what the authorities let in.
A squeeze on Chinese student travel overseas is also in sight. In the last few decades, there were millions, but now in Beijing they have understood that their exposure to different types of education and societies risks creating new Hong Kong in the country. And in danger are also the "Confucius Institutes", which many nations are banning as they represent vehicles of Chinese propaganda.
Another fundamental fact must be emphasized. In July, an investigation by the World Health Organization was to begin in Wuhan to clarify the origins of the pandemic. However, Beijing is opposing strong obstruction, as it wishes to have a say in the composition of the commission. Hence the serious diplomatic tension with the United States, the European Union and Australia which would instead like to speed up the investigation.
Once again, in the meantime, the People's Republic is trying to exalt the "virtues" of its model of political and social organization abroad, highlighting the order that reigns in Beijing in the face of the chaos that currently characterizes the West.
But perhaps everyone – or almost everyone – has understood that Chinese narratives cannot be trusted, simply because they are based on lies. The Party-State propaganda machine is undoubtedly very efficient, but the pandemic demonstrates that an insurmountable border still exists between propaganda and reality.
The post Zero contagion, with lies and censorship China manages to disappear from the Covid "rankings". And the West, is it drinking it? appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/contagi-zero-con-menzogne-e-censura-la-cina-riesce-a-sparire-dalle-classifiche-covid-e-loccidente-se-la-beve/ on Sat, 10 Oct 2020 04:04:00 +0000.