Chinese state media continued its relentless campaign to spin the coronavirus pandemic to the Communist Party’s advantage with an editorial at the Global Times on Tuesday blaming the “three arrogances” of the West for preventing the world from uniting against the disease and forgetting Beijing’s role in spreading it.
The editorial began with the biggest of Big Lies, the false assertion that China had no idea the coronavirus was so contagious until it had already escaped from the city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began.
In truth, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) knew how contagious the virus was for weeks before they admitted it to the world, and acted ruthlessly to silence doctors in Wuhan who tried to raise the alarm – but in propaganda such as the Global Times editorial, the CCP pretends to be shocked that the Wuhan virus was so infectious and promptly alerted the rest of humanity the moment it learned the horrifying truth.
According to the Global Times, the noble and courageous CCP gave the world a wonderful “opportunity” to battle coronavirus with Chinese help, but this golden chance was squandered by the three Western “arrogances” of racism, cultural superiority, and democracy.
The first two complaints are obvious enough, since the CCP launched a massive propaganda offensive to define all mentions of Chinese culpability in the pandemic, or even simple declarations of fact about its origins in Wuhan, as “racism,” and much of the Western media establishment was happy to play along. The CCP knows exactly which buttons to push with left-wing American and European journalists.
The “third arrogance,” on the other hand, is a remarkable Chinese effort to turn Western standards of transparency and government accountability into a problem. The Global Times argued that CCP rule is superior because it is opaque, while Western democracy and demands for honesty from Beijing are an impediment to effective disease control:
The third arrogance has to do with the West’s system of governance. Western countries emphasized that the actions of their governments are “transparent,” allowing people to better manage themselves because they take responsibility for themselves.
This has been proven to be blind confidence.
Because of these arrogances, the early reactions to the virus by the US and Europe were terrible. Considering China’s early experience, it is somewhat unforgivable that they made such serious mistakes.
Of course, free-market capitalism took a routine beating from the Communists, who laughably claimed they took a “people-centered approach” to the coronavirus even though they still will not tell the truth about how many people it killed:
As the epidemic intensifies, the US and Europe are gradually adopting stricter prevention and control measures. But there have always been several problems in the process.
First, the governing parties have spent too much effort considering the interests of minorities and small groups. This is obvious in the US. Washington continues to put short-term political interests above people’s lives and social rights are a problem in the Western democratic system.
Second, they give capital to high a priority. When facing the COVID-19 fight, some politicians worry more about the epidemic affecting the economy, especially the stock markets. This is different from China’s people-oriented concept, showing that Western countries are indeed capitalist societies.
Third, the US and Europe have implemented social Darwinism in their policies. Since the spread of the COVID-19, some high-rank officials in the US and European countries have proposed “herd immunity.” Some even said elderly people, if diagnosed as COVID-19 patients, should sacrifice their lives to protect the overall situation.
The editorial concluded with the latest restatement of Beijing’s big propaganda push, incredibly touting a pandemic caused by Communist China as proof that China’s system is vastly superior to the Western world:
In the past, the West gave people the impression of being developed and powerful in all aspects. But the COVID-19 pandemic has made people realize this is not exactly the case. Western countries are weak in the application of internet, big data and transportation networks. Their industrial production and technological capabilities are not as strong as one might expect. They have exposed many problems in their medical systems and government leadership.
China has shown strong leadership, industrial and technological capabilities and the entire society’s cultural cohesion and optimism in the fight against COVID-19. China is willing to contribute to the global fight against the pandemic, and Western countries need to change their previous wrong ideas as soon as possible.
The U.S. intelligence community reportedly presented a classified report to the White House last week that concluded China deliberately concealed the extent of the coronavirus epidemic and is still reporting false data to the world. China’s latest claims include zero deaths from the coronavirus on Monday and zero infections anywhere in the massive People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military apparatus. In fact, PLA officials said the epidemic actually “improved the combat readiness of the Chinese military.”
“The U.S. welcomes China’s call to combat the COVID-19 pandemic together,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said on Tuesday. “We urge Beijing to share all virus data, let international teams investigate how the outbreak began in China, and allow citizens free speech.”
“True cooperation requires transparency and real actions, not just rhetoric,” Ortagus added, possibly after reading the latest CCP editorials and deciding to directly refute them.