The Communist Party is guilty of rank hypocrisy in seeking to portray Beijing as the world’s saviour

At a time when the rest of the world is facing meltdown over the coronavirus pandemic, there is something deeply unedifying about China’s attempts to capitalise on the crisis to further its own global ambitions.

Beijing may take umbrage at Donald Trump’s constant reference to the outbreak as “the China virus” or “the Wuhan flu”, but the American president is simply stating the obvious, namely that the worst public health crisis the world has witnessed in a century originated in a Chinese wild animal market at the end of last year.

Moreover, the slow response of the Chinese authorities in dealing with the outbreak, together with the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) initial attempt to conceal the true extent of the crisis, may well explain why it is Europe, and not China, that now enjoys the dubious distinction of becoming the pandemic’s epicentre.

One of the CCP’s guiding principles is that nothing can be allowed to undermine its supremacy. This would explain why, rather than heed the warnings of Dr Li Wenliang, the doctor who first identified the terrifying threat posed by Covid-19, the Chinese authorities denounced him for “rumour-mongering”, and either ignored or played down the risks until well into January.

By that time Dr Li was at death’s door having contracted the virus, while the tens of thousands of travellers making their way from Wuhan to destinations around the world guaranteed a local crisis became an epidemic of truly global proportions.

To compound their incompetence, the Chinese authorities made matters worse by failing to cooperate with the World Health Organisation to anything like the necessary extent, denying the outside world access to crucial information that may well have prevented it becoming a pandemic.

Yet, rather than accept responsibility for causing the crisis, Beijing is seeking to rewrite history by silencing its critics, while positioning itself as the lead aid donor for other countries afflicted by the virus.

To this day, the rest of the world still does not know for certain how many people in China have died from coronavirus, or how many remain infected.

But the CCP still insists on pumping out propaganda, portraying the country as “the enabler of miraculous human feats” in terms of combatting the virus. Beijing’s Central Propaganda Department has even published a book in several languages praising the role President Xi Jinping personally played in curbing the outbreak.