The world is anxiously watching China’s COVID cases surge as the 1.3 billion Chinese struggle to survive the pandemic blowing through the country. How Beijing has covered up the covid outbreak and whom it would blame for the public health disaster? And why it won’t accept foreign aid?
An update on the current situation in China
On Dec. 19, Beijing officially announced two COVID-19 deaths — China’s first reported fatalities in weeks — after it eased its strict “zero-COVID” approach, despite various videos, social media posts, and reports, including those from relatives of victims and people who work in the funeral business, that prove otherwise. The Chinese are desperately looking for over-the-counter drugs to relieve pain and fever.
I’ve seen Chinese parents offering ¥10,000 Chinese yuan, that’s US$1500, to get a bottle of Tylenol or Ibuprofen for their child suffering from fever. Videos show the Chinese waiting outside a drug manufacturing plant to get the drug. And this shortage has extended overseas.
A list of countries and regions that have seen the Chinese buying large quantities of Ibuprofen and paracetamol (Tylenol) include Taiwan, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, the U.S., Australia, the United Kingdom, and others. Japanese media has reported Chinese shipping the drugs to China. In Taiwan, politicians are discussing if they should support the mainland or ban shipping the drugs to China.
The most frightening situation is the meltdown of China’s medical system. Chinese doctors are so overworked that one of the videos coming out of China shows an exhausted doctor passing out in front of his patients.
We’ve only seen the outbreak for two weeks since Beijing announced the new 10 public health measures on Dec. 7. The timing seemed perfect. Beijing relaxed the “zero-COVID” policy, and then “boom,” the cases surged. But that may be what Beijing wants us to believe.
An insider’s story
A senior member within the Political and Law system of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Dec. 19 anonymously that the outbreak in Beijing started as early as the Party Congress, which was held during the last week of October. He said that large-scale infections occurred in Beijing’s hospitals before the “zero-COVID” policy was lifted. Medical professionals and older people were hard hit.
But the authorities have been hiding the truth. He said that his family member was living in a Beijing hospital for rehab. Because Beijing was hosting the Party Congress, the hospital did not allow patients to be discharged, saying that there was a risk of getting COVID outside. The fact is, at that time, the hospital already had a COVID outbreak.
Also, because of the strict “zero-COVID” policy, hospitals did not report the real COVID cases nor treat COVID patients. Patients were given a random diagnosis, and the doctors didn’t say the patients had COVID. They didn’t even bother to test the patients to avoid getting positive results. Because this official is a VIP, the doctor gave his family member an antigen test, and it came out positive.
The official said that his relative was got COVID at the hospital, and was transferred to a few of the top hospitals in Beijing to get treatment, probably after the Party Congress was over. The anonymous guy said his family member eventually died of COVID. But the cause of death was urinary tract infection.
By the beginning of December, it had got completely out of control. The only thing the Beijing Municipal Health Commission and hospitals did was to restrict patients from being discharged and to prevent healthcare workers from going home. And the actual situation of the pandemic was tightly sealed by the authorities. Hospitals did not dare to report COVID cases or treat COVID patients without permission from the top.
It was only after the official announcement of the death of former CCP leader Jiang Zemin that information about the outbreak in Beijing was gradually released to the public, but by this time, a large number of elderly people infected with COVID were either dead or in critical condition. And the Beijing hospitals were already in chaos. He said the coverup directly resulted in the death of many retired CCP officials. Some of the officials who died in the hospitals were high-ranking.
This anonymous person told RFA that he is at the top 1% of the social ladder and always thought he had great social connections and resources. But official ranks don’t mean much anymore because every place is running over capacity. And the situation for ordinary Chinese was even worse.
This person may be a high-ranking official because he said he controls “a very large amount of resources.” But it took him 5 days to cremate the body of his family member after death. Looking back, there was a series of events that seem to match what he said and can prove that the outbreak already started before the White Paper Movement.
Connecting the dots
On Nov. 20, the Canadian Visa Centre in Beijing announced that it would be closed from Nov. 22, and no date was given for reopening. VFS Global, the operator that handles visa services for foreign countries in China, also closed some of its Beijing visa centers on Nov. 22. At the time protests were breaking out, Shanghai issued several measures requiring stockpiling of supplies for at least 60 days. Before that, Shandong province decided to spend 23 billion to construct 119 permanent quarantine camps.
On Nov. 28, the U.S. Embassy in China called on American citizens in China to stockpile supplies for 14 days. On Dec. 11, Japan closed its visa operations in China. On Dec. 14, a WHO director revealed that China had an explosive number of cases before the regime relaxed the “zero-COVID” policy. Also, on Dec. 14, the White House said the U.S. was ready to help if Beijing requested assistance with the outbreak. On Dec. 15, the U.S. suspended all visa services in China. On the same day, Germany also stopped visa services in China.
A Chinese netizen who listed these events said that they don’t say much if you look at them separately. But when they are reviewed together, they support the argument that a major outbreak already took place long before the CCP relaxed its “zero-COVID” policy on Dec. 7. And I want to point out that Western governments and organizations knew it before the White Paper Movement.
Saying NO to foreign aid
Reuters reported on Dec. 20 that some U.S. and European officials are struggling to figure out how, or if, they can help Beijing to mitigate a crisis that will hurt the global economy, further constrain supply chains and spawn new COVID variants of concern.It said that democratic governments are struggling to find a diplomatic way to help China stem a burgeoning crisis with global health and economic implications in a way that the Chinese government is willing to accept.
I think Western countries trying to find a diplomatic way to offer China help is futile because the CCP won’t accept it. Saving people’s lives isn’t its priority; saving the regime’s power is. The anonymous Beijing official also said in his interview that the CCP would blame the surge of COVID cases in China on the White Paper Movement. And this is the reason why Beijing won’t accept foreign assistance.
By the time the White Paper Movement broke out, Beijing knew that the pandemic was already getting out of control. So Beijing ended “zero-COVID” swiftly after the authorities saw the movement as the perfect excuse to blame for the outbreak. The CCP will take the opportunity to channel the public’s anger toward the White Paper Movement. The CCP may persecute some people who demanded political freedom and call them the hostile forces that caused the massive outbreak.
In Lei’s Real Talk on Dec. 17, I shared with you how higher CCP authorities criticized Wuxi city of Jiangsu Province for not having enough COVID cases and how the regime wants to get as many people to have COVID as possible? Beijing is pushing for the peak of this wave to come as fast as it can, ideally to have the wave over by March, because if it drags on too long, it’s hard for them to associate it with the White Paper Movement.
Therefore, if Beijing plans to blame the White Paper Movement and outside forces, it cannot accept assistance from foreign countries. The CCP will find it difficult to blame the United States while getting American help. I think the United States and other western countries should develop a better strategy for dealing with the CCP in this public health crisis. To mitigate the impact on the global economy and public health, they should do the right thing by being transparent and forthright.
The WHO should have sent out warnings. But we didn’t see that. Western mainstream media didn’t report it, either. It was not until social media videos and posts from China were leaked that WHO and Western media started to write about China’s outbreak. Only by sticking to the principle of transparency will the West successfully push Beijing to acknowledge the outbreak publicly and be responsible in managing the pandemic.
Trying to save the CCP’s face is most unwise and counter-productive because it will make the West subject to CCP’s agenda. Western countries should not be concerned with saving CCP’s face because it can’t be saved. The West will hurt its credibility when trying to save Beijing’s face.
“Democratic governments are struggling to find a diplomatic way to help China to stem a burgeoning crisis with global health and economic implications in a way that the Chinese government is willing to accept. However, trying to find a diplomatic way to offer China help is futile because the CCP won’t accept it. Saving people’s lives isn’t its priority; saving the regime’s power is.”
Watch Lei’s Real Talk on this topic
