China’s Global Times propaganda newspaper repeatedly attacked Western democracies on Sunday for its measures to control the Chinese coronavirus, the spread of which the Chinese government facilitated for months before alerting the world to the new pathogen.

The latest studies suggest that doctors documented the first case of Chinese coronavirus in late November. China made public the discovery of the virus on January 20. In the two months in between, Chinese officials held mass gatherings and arrested doctors who attempted to warn residents to wash their hands and take other basic precautions.

The Chinese Communist Party’s newspapers contend that the free flow of information in democratic societies has hampered response to the pandemic it created. It has also refused nearly all responsibility for the virus and openly accused the United States of creating and unleashing it as a biological attack on the country, offering no evidence to substantiate that claim. The little responsibility the Chinese government has taken for the outbreak has not been placed on Beijing, but on local Hubei and Wuhan officials who have since lost their jobs and been replaced by loyalists of dictator Xi Jinping.

At press time, the World Health Organization (WHO) and regional governments have documented nearly 170,000 cases of Chinese coronavirus. Over 80,000 of those cases are in China, and the vast majority in Hubei province, whose capital, Wuhan, is believed to be the origin of the virus.

The Global Times attacked Western governments, particularly the United Kingdom, on Sunday using a claim that London was considering deliberately allowing British individuals to contract the virus to create “herd immunity.”

“Many Chinese internet users expressed shock at the inaction and ineptness of those governments for apparently adopting a policy of ‘total surrender’ to the virus without regard for human life,” the Global Times claimed. “Meanwhile Chinese experts highlighted the hypocrisy of those Western countries that frequently try to lecture China on human rights.”

“Maybe the UK government believed this was a responsible approach as it can save money for their taxpayers and prevent the NHS (National Health Service) from collapsing, but from a Chinese perspective, this is truly inhuman,” one of the “experts” in the Global Times’ stable asserted, calling Europe’s approach to the outbreak “cold blood[ed] and extremely rational.”

“They found China, which is a socialist country always criticized by the West, is putting people’s lives at the priority and willing to accept heavy sacrifices in the economy, while some capitalist Western democratic states actually choose to protect economic interests and stock markets first to serve the interests of the capitalists, instead of the health of ordinary people,” another so-called “expert” alleged.

The Global Times did not mention that the U.K. has a socialist healthcare system, nor did it note that the U.K. is not implementing the alleged “herd immunity” plan of letting the Chinese virus kill weakened people by denying treatment.

Asked about rumors of an alleged plan to let British citizens contract the virus and die, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said in an interview on Sunday, “no, obviously.”

The Global Times coupled its criticism of non-existent British policy with an article praising itself for its abysmal response to the outbreak in Wuhan, citing WHO officials. The WHO has consistently praised China despite overwhelming evidence of human rights atrocities like live organ harvesting out of political prisoners, a result of relying heavily on China’s funding and pressure to receive as much health information from Beijing as possible. The WHO has also denied the nation of Taiwan membership to placate the Chinese Communist Party, which may have resulted in Taiwan becoming the most successful nation in the world in responding to the Wuhan virus outbreak.

Another Global Times article on Sunday claimed that China’s “success” in creating a global pandemic through secrecy and bureaucratic failure proved the ineffectiveness of democratic governance.

“Considering China’s efforts and WHO’s warnings, which gave the world more than a month for preparedness, why has the West still failed to prevent the epidemic?” the Times asked. “Ultimately, it’s a result of their governance systems.”

“To win votes, politicians have to please the powers that control both the capital and the public. Therefore, the West cannot have a government that is as powerful as China’s,” the newspaper argued. “Under the Western governance systems, China’s way to tackle the virus can’t be copied by the West. Another problem is that the central government in the West has no hard binding force on local officials. Even if a central government takes measures, it cannot hold local officials accountable if they do not cooperate.”

Yet more Global Times coverage condemned Western culture for not being accustomed to people wearing masks in public – common in China due to the overwhelming pollution caused by manufacturing and coal power plants – and Latin cultures in particular for the practice of greeting with a kiss.

China has largely blamed Wuhan officials for the outbreak, even as the mayor of Wuhan, Zhou Xianwang, insisted he could not reveal the extent of the outbreak or initiate emergency proceedings without permission from Beijing, which never came. Due to this bureaucratic bottleneck, Zhou said, 5 million people left Wuhan before the city locked down, spreading the virus globally.

Hubei province has spent much of the last week attempting to restore normalcy. Dictator Xi Jinping visited Wuhan, finally, last Wednesday, a visit the resulted in Chinese soldiers holding residents up at gunpoint to prevent any potential protests against his incompetence in handling the national emergency. At least one city in Hubei, Qianjiang, attempted to lift all mobility restrictions last week, but was forced to reinstate a city-wide lockdown in half an hour.

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