China’s national flag as he and others gather outside the
Legislative Council in Hong Kong on November 12, 2020, a day after
the city’s pro-Beijing authorities ousted four pro-democracy
lawmakers.
Anthony WALLACE / AFP
China’s ruling Communist Party leaders have
congratulated themselves on their “extremely extraordinary” success
in handling the COVID-19 outbreak domestically, ahead of a World
Health Organization probe into the disease’s origins.
China faced a barrage of criticism at home and abroad over its
initial handling of the virus, which emerged in the central city of
Wuhan last December.
China’s Politburo, the top decision-making body of the Communist
Party, said late Friday that the party leadership “played a
decisive role in leading … China in prevailing over the rare risks
and challenges this year.”
“At the critical moment … the Party Central Committee took a
long-term view …achieving an extremely extraordinary glory in this
extremely unusual year,” state news agency Xinhua reported, citing
a statement issued after the two-day meeting.
China has largely curbed the spread of the virus, and was one of
the only major economies to report growth this year. But it has
been accused of covering up the initial outbreak, and so
contributing to the virus’ spread internationally.
At home, Beijing has attempted to stifle criticism by punishing
at least eight whistleblowers.
A Chinese citizen journalist who reported on Wuhan’s outbreak,
Zhang Zhan, has been detained since May and is expected to go on
trial on Monday.
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Zhang is a former lawyer who travelled to the city in February
to report on the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak, through
livestreams and critical essays widely shared on social media
platforms banned in China.
The two-day Politburo meeting comes shortly before an
international team of WHO experts is expected to arrive in China to
investigate the animal origins of Covid-19, during which trip they
will visit Wuhan.
An expert from the team told AFP this week that the
investigation was “not about finding a guilty country or a guilty
authority”, but about “about understanding what happened to avoid
that in the future”.
Beijing has recently attempted to cast doubts on the origins of
the virus — the state-run People’s Daily newspaper said
in a Facebook post in early November that “all available evidence
suggests that the coronavirus did not start in central China’s
Wuhan”.
China has also tried to enhance its soft power push during
the pandemic — promising to share its vaccines with developing
countries, and engaging in “mask diplomacy” — donating personal
protective gear to countries in need.