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Leadership: Xi Warned to Prepare for Changes in the External Environment

On April 8, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee held a meeting on the coronavirus pandemic situation and the economic situation both in China and outside of China. Xi Jinping gave a speech stating, “Everyone must adhere to bottom-line thinking (thinking about the worst scenario) and have the mental and work preparation to deal with changes in the external environment for a long period of time. The coronavirus prevention and control work against importing the virus from abroad and reinfection internally must not be relaxed.”

Xi’s statement of preparing to “deal with changes in the external environment for a long period of time” caused the media to have a number of discussions. Chinese media focused on the virus containment and on importing the virus from abroad. (Qiushi, #1)

Media outside of the CCP’s control said that the CCP’s worries about external changes, including the international community suing it for the virus pandemic and the external impact on its economy.

Radio Free Asia (#2) commented that it is very rare for Xi to warn about “changes in the external environment.” Even during the toughest time during the U.S.-China trade war, Xi and other CCP officials did not make such a statement. The article quoted Zhang Lifan, an independent historian, who stated that China is worried about international lawsuits against the CCP for coronavirus damage. “Many people said that 120 years ago, in 1900, eight countries sent a joint army to China (and forced the Qing Dynasty to pay a huge indemnity). This time it might be 80 countries that join forces to hold China accountable.”

One article from Radio France International (#3) agreed with the thought. “Xi was giving a warning. What he didn’t speak about directly is a very severe issue that, after the pandemic is over, other countries will hold the CCP accountable for the damages from the virus. Initially, this issue was not that urgent, but Beijing’s series of actions in attempt to cleanse itself from the liability have backfired and led to the international community’s great vigilance and condemnation.”

Radio France International (#4) said in another article that Xi’s warning could be linked to the economic crisis in China. On April 10, at a press conference on maintaining foreign trade, Ren Hongbin, the Assistant Minister of Commerce stated that China is willing to expand its cooperation with the U.S. and other trade partners. Ren said that China’s trading companies are facing severe situations, including reduced orders, increasing costs, a poor international logistics process, and the blocking of supply chains.

Diplomacy: France Called in China Ambassador Because of Chinese Embassy’s Remarks

Radio France International reported that France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called in China’s Ambassador Lv Shaye for publishing articles criticizing France and Western countries for slandering China.

The Foreign Minister said that he expressly disagrees with some of the recent remarks of the People’s Republic of China’s Ambassador to France. He said that some publicly expressed opinions are not in line with the good bilateral relations between France and China. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs said that some comments were related to the containment of the new coronavirus.

On April 12, China’s Embassy in France published an article, “Reverse the facts that had been reversed – the observations on the novel coronavirus epidemic by a Chinese diplomat in France.” The article praised China because it had implemented the most comprehensive, most complete, and most strict measures to contain the coronavirus. It also criticized “certain self-claimed objective media, experts, and politicians in the West who did not contribute ideas to contain the virus in their country or the world, but spent their time on slandering and attacking China.”

The article said, “We see that, in Western countries, politicians attack each other for their votes; (some country) proposed a ‘group immunization’ strategy to leave the public to resist the slaughter of the virus on their own; (some countries) grabbed other’s epidemic prevention materials; (some countries) bought epidemic prevention materials with public money and sold them to private companies for profit; (some countries) let the elderly in nursing homes sign the ‘Consent to Give up Emergency Rescue;’ nursing home staff members collectively fled from their duties without permission, causing many elderly to starve and to die; (one country) fired an aircraft carrier captain for requesting that infected sailors be permitted to land ashore for treatment… But we didn’t see any major Western media reports on them or provide in-depth investigations that reveal the truth. Where is the conscience of these fair and objective media and experts? Where are their professional ethics?”

Hiding Information: Document Showed the CCP Hid Info for Six Critical Days of Virus Containment

Associated Press (AP) has obtained an official document from China that showed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials knew the severity of the coronavirus and the likelihood of person-to-person transmission on January 14, 2020. The government passed down instructions to local health officials to take cautious measures, but not to disclose it to the public. The government didn’t admit the epidemic outbreak and the person-to-person transmission to the public until January 20, six days later.

AP received documents from an anonymous source in the medical field and verified the authenticity of the documents.

A memo in the documents states that, on January 14, China’s National Health Commission held a confidential teleconference with provincial health officials to convey instructions on the coronavirus from CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and Vice Premier Sun Chunlan. The memo does not specify what those instructions were.

Ma Xiaowei, Director of China’s National Health Commission, said at the conference, “The epidemic situation is still severe and complex, the most severe challenge since SARS in 2003, and is likely to develop into a major public health event.”

Under a section titled “Sober Understanding of the Situation,” the memo said that, “clustered cases suggest that human-to-human transmission is possible.”

“With the coming of the Spring Festival, many people will be traveling, and the risk of transmission and spread is high. All localities must prepare for and respond to a pandemic.”

Ma demanded officials unite around Xi and made clear that political considerations and social stability were key priorities during the long lead-up to China’s two biggest political meetings of the year in March.

The National Health Commission also distributed a 63-page set of instructions to provincial health officials. The instructions ordered health officials nationwide to identify suspected cases, hospitals to open fever clinics, and doctors and nurses to wear protective gear. The instructions were marked “internal” — “not to be spread on the internet,” “not to be publicly disclosed.”

In public, officials continued to downplay the threat, pointing to the 41 cases that were public at the time.

“We have reached the latest understanding that the risk of sustained human-to-human transmission is low,” Li Qun, the head of the China Center for Diseases Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) emergency center, told Chinese state television on Jan. 15. A CDC notice shows on that day that Li was appointed leader of a group preparing emergency plans for the level one response.

On Jan. 20, Xi Jinping issued his first public comments on the virus, saying the outbreak “must be taken seriously” and every possible measure pursued. A leading Chinese epidemiologist, Zhong Nanshan, announced for the first time on national television that the virus was transmissible from person to person.

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