Chinascope – Page 352

Stability Control: Hubei Party Propaganda Department Had 1,600 People Monitor Internet Postings

Epoch Times, an independent Chinese language news media, revealed a work report from the Hubei Provincial Communist Party Committee Propaganda Department. The report, dated February 15, 2020, was submitted to the Hubei Epidemic Control Command Center.

The report claimed:

By February 14, primary media under Hubei’s control had posted nearly 50,000 articles. 25 new media products, including touching stories about the medical staff, construction progress of the Huoshenshan and Leishenshan hospitals, and hospitals releasing healed patients, had over 100 million viewers; a Tik Tok video series on epidemic control was watched 15 billion times; and epidemic-related postings on Weibo were read 32 billion times.
Since January 22, the Propaganda Department hosted one news conference every day to proactively release authoritative information. By February 14, it had released 828 “authoritative messages” on Internet media.
It has mobilized 1,600 public opinion monitors to monitor all Internet postings around the clock. They found 606,800 sensitive, harmful messages. The department “refuted rumors online,” “struck (rumor creators) effectively offline,” and refuted 1,474 rumors. It submitted requests to the State Network Information Office to delete 54,000 rumors and harmful messages. It also organized Internet celebrities to write 400 commentaries and mobilized people to post 400,000 comments (to counter rumors or harmful messages or to support official viewpoints).
A total of 60 foreign news reporters from 33 foreign media came to Wuhan. It successfully convinced 47 to leave.

Hiding Information: Media Not Allowed to Report on Coronavirus Outside of Party Messages

Bitter Winter, a media that focuses on reporting China’s human rights violations, disclosed that a staff member working for a newspaper in Southeast China revealed that the media he worked for was not allowed to report on the coronavirus outside of the Communist Party’s messages.

His company received the notice from the propaganda department a few days after tgovernment locked down Wuhan on January 23, 2020. The notice stated:

News reporters are not allowed to report on or interview about the true picture of the epidemic, including topics such as insufficient hospital beds or suspected cases in the community. Instead, they should only report how the government sent supplies over and organized epidemic control.

All epidemic statistics must use the numbers that the “Novel Coronavirus Control and Prevention Leading Group” released. All articles must follow Xinhua or the Health Ministry’s news conference. Publishing a message that the government has not reviewed will be treated as publishing a rumor.

Global Times: Why Is the United States So Eager to Send Its “Experts on Anti-Epidemic Diseases” to China?

China’s state-run media Global Times published an article asking why the United States is very eager to send its experts to China (to help control the epidemic of Wuhan pneumonia.) The article listed three possible reasons that are being discussed:

1. China is concerned that the U.S. experts may grab the “first-hand data” and place the research results from China in their research papers.

2. American politicians are concocting the threat theory of a “China-made-virus.” If China allows American experts to come to China to investigate, it may provide “ammunition” to those politicians.

3. Some experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have military missions. They may probe the information about China’s capabilities in biochemical research, such as virus research.

The article vehemently defended China and dismissed the first two reasons. Regarding the third one, the article said that China has always welcomed cooperation in the face of fighting disease epidemics. However, it is also necessary to guard against people with vigilance. The article further elaborated that the CDC was related to the military when it was established. Even now, the CDC is still cooperating with the military. For example, the United States Army Institute of Infectious Diseases Medicine (USAMRIID), the United States Army’s main agency for the defense and response to biological warfare, also has the only BL-4 laboratory that studies high-risk viruses under the U. S. Department of Defense.

Therefore, the article concluded, it is necessary to conduct an investigation on personnel (who come to China from the U.S.).

Source: Wenxuecity, February 10, 2020
https://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2020/02/10/9118426.html

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