China’s leadership remains under pressure related to the corona virus and appears to be changing its communication strategy. State media published a speech on Saturday, according to which head of state and party leader Xi Jinping apparently already knew about the outbreak of the new corona virus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in early January. In the speech given at the beginning of February, the president spoke of giving the first instructions on January 7 to combat the virus.
He is also said to have ordered strict travel controls in the particularly hard-hit Hubei region, which de facto quarantined almost 60 million people. The publication shows that the Beijing leadership apparently knew about the danger of the virus much earlier than previously thought. The authorities had only announced at the end of January that the virus could spread from person to person.
The initial cover-up of the outbreak, inactivity and late response had previously been presented as a failure by the local government. Public resentment towards local authorities and the police is great. It peaked almost two weeks ago after a doctor died of lung disease who discovered the outbreak but was then silenced by the local police. Party leader Xi Jinping recently fired several high-ranking politicians in Hubei and sent his own confidants for this.
The death toll rose again by 142 people on Sunday
With the publication of the speech, the state media seem to be trying to stage the party leader as a crisis manager from the very beginning. Xi had recently come under fire after being out in public for days. He also sent Prime Minister Li Keqiang to Wuhan and only appeared briefly in a crisis center in Beijing. Critics accused him of lacking leadership.
The new strategy is not without danger for the party leader. Life in China has been standing still for weeks. Firms, schools and universities remain closed in most parts of the country for fear of new infections. The economic damage is already estimated at up to one percent of the gross domestic product. If Beijing is unable to bring the situation under control soon, party leader Xi Jinping is likely to come under significantly greater pressure than before.
The death toll rose again on Sunday by 142 people to 1665 since the outbreak of the novel virus. As a result, more than twice as many people died as during the Sars epidemic in 2003. At least 68,500 people are sick in China. Experts suspect a significantly higher number of unreported cases.
Created: 2/16/2020, 12:03 PM
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