A massive pool party attended by thousands of people at the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic showed how well China had controlled the disease, the government insisted on Thursday, despite photographs of the occasion that provoked international outrage.
The photos and video of the weekend’s electronic music night in Wuhan, where COVID-19 first made the impression in December 2019, went viral, prompting a massive backlash to places where the blockages are still in effect.
Wuhan pool images have been shared on social media around the world Photo: AFP/STR
The headline “Life is a beach in Wuhan while the world will pay for the value of the virus,” dotted on the cover of the Australian Daily Telegraph, typical of some headlines, while comments on social media sites were more frank and colorful.
Chinese nationalist newspaper Global Times has opposed what “acid grapes” on the outside.
The reaction to Wuhan pool party around the most common negative globalization Photo: AFP/STR
The video of the AFP occasion has been viewed more than a million times since its publication.
Thousands more crowded in the room, equipped with a transitional pool, in Wuhan, epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic Photo: AFP / STR
But China said Thursday that the pool festival had shown the “strategic victory” of the city opposed to the epidemic, and said the photographs were evidence that the country had managed to control the virus.
“I’ve noticed applicable AFP reports and they say that other people in Europe and the United States were very shocked,” foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press conference.
“This is that Wuhan has gained a strategic victory in his fight against the epidemic,” he said.
China has been the target of the global fire since the outbreak of the virus, which lit more than 22 million people and killed some 800,000 people.
Beijing has denied the US accusations that China increased the initial epidemic and mised it.
Wuhan has reported new cases of virus in months after suffering a draconian blockade and strict restrictions before this year.