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Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP

It should be no surprise, then, that doubts are being cast on the reliability of Chinese data. Bloomberg News reported this week that a classified U.S. intelligence document concluded that Beijing deliberately concealed the extent of the crisis, under-reporting both total cases and deaths, which plainly handicapped other countries in their understanding of the threat and their ability to prepare for it. No one will ever know how many additional deaths resulted from the determination of China’s leadership to protect itself at the expense of others.

The regime is now engaged in efforts to dilute the damage. It obligingly sent a shipment of protective gear to Canada, after Ottawa sent it tonnes of medical supplies earlier in the crisis. A report that China also lifted its year-old ban on Canadian canola exports proved to be false, but the regime scored a public relations coup when it allowed a plane owned by the New England Patriots to land and load up more than a million masks, for distribution to health-care workers.

Photo by Jim Davis/Pool via REUTERS

No one should be naive enough to believe such efforts reflect any real change in Beijing, either in outlook or approach. If anything, the pandemic has heightened the determination of its unelected rulers to protect their powers and toughen their controls. Xi and his accomplices can’t help but have been alarmed at the willingness of ordinary Chinese people to voice open criticism of the government’s handling of the situation. When Xi was scheduled to visit the centre of the outbreak in March, a local official suggested it was “necessary to carry out gratitude education among the people of the whole city” to properly display their appreciation, which produced a fierce online backlash.