Beijing, China
The leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (PCC) this Saturday congratulated itself on its “extraordinary” success in the face of the covid-19 pandemic, when a World Health Organization (WHO) mission arrives in the country to try to determine the origin of the coronavirus.
The Chinese government has been widely criticized both within and beyond its borders for the way it uses the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, in the middle of the country, at the end of 2019.
But this Saturday, the PCC leadership congratulated itself on the “decisive role” of the party in the face of “strange risks and challenges this year” and for having “adopted a long-term perspective that enabled a glorious and extraordinary victory in this totally unusual year,” according to statements by Xinhua news agency.
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China claims it has managed to eradicate the coronavirus in just a few months thanks to strict incarceration policies in the affected cities. In addition, it will be the only country in the world to show positive growth this year.
But China is accused of hiding the rise of the virus, allowing it to spread around the world. At least eight people who had criticized government policy at the start of the crisis were punished in some way in the country.
For example, a Chinese journalist, Zhang Zhan, whose reports in Wuhan at the beginning of this year showed the chaos of the first weeks, was detained and will be tried from Monday.
These statements of Chinese complacency come days before the arrival of a WHO mission to the country, which will travel to Wuhan, among other places, to investigate the origin of the virus, particularly to try to understand how it passed from animals to humans. .
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This investigation is not intended to “blame a country or authorities”, but to try “to understand what happened to prevent it from happening again”.
China recently tried to cast some doubt on the origin of this virus. “All available evidence shows that the coronavirus has not occurred in Wuhan, central China,” the People’s Daily recently published on its website, without providing further details.
For months, China has also pledged to share its vaccine with developing countries and to supply masks and other protective equipment to countries in need.