Covid-19: before the WHO investigation, China claims its “extraordinary” success

 

This is an opinion which may well not be shared unanimously. As the World Health Organization prepares to launch an investigation into the origins of the virus, Chinese Communist Party leaders congratulated themselves on their “extremely extraordinary” success in tackling the Covid-19 epidemic . The Chinese government is widely criticized both in China and abroad for the way it handled the early days of the virus’ appearance in Wuhan at the end of 2019. The Politburo (ruling body) of the Chinese Communist Party s ‘is congratulated on Friday evening for the “decisive role” of the party facing “the risks and rare challenges of this year”, by “choosing a long-term view … which has allowed an extremely extraordinary glorious victory in this extremely unusual year”, according to the new China national agency.

China claims to have managed in a few months to get rid of the virus almost completely thanks to an extremely severe containment policy for the affected cities, and it is the only large country in the world to have continued its economic growth this year. But she is accused of having initially hidden the appearance of the virus, allowing it to spread throughout the world. In China, at least eight people who criticized government policy in the early days of the crisis have been punished in one way or another. A Chinese journalist, Zhang Zhan, whose reports from Wuhan earlier this year showed the chaos of the first few weeks, has been arrested and will stand trial on Monday.

Beijing sows doubt

This Chinese self-congratulation precedes the arrival in the country of a WHO team, which will go to Wuhan in particular, to investigate the origins of the virus, and in particular to try to understand how it passed from the animal to man. This investigation, explained one of the experts to Agence France-Presse this week, is not intended “to find a country or a guilty authority”, but to “understand what happened to prevent it from happening. repeat in the future ”.

Beijing recently tried to cast doubt on the origins of the virus. “All available evidence shows that the coronavirus did not appear in Wuhan, central China,” wrote recently People’s Daily on his Facebook site, without giving more details. China has also been practicing “generosity diplomacy” for months, promising to share its vaccine with developing countries and providing masks and other protective equipment to countries in need.

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