President Xi Jinping revered the “heroes” of China’s “people’s war” opposed to COVID-19 in a rite on Tuesday, praising the country’s resistance as well as the decisive role played in the communist party’s efforts to engage it.
Defying accusations from the United States and elsewhere that initial problems have allowed the coronavirus pandemic to spread more quickly, Xi said China had acted with brazenness and transparency and taken decisive life-saving action.
“China has helped save the lives of tens of millions of others around the world through its practical actions, showing China’s honest preference for building a network and a long-term non-unusual for humanity,” Xi said in a rite in the Great Hall. People of Beijing.
He said China was the first primary economy to re-expand the pandemic, a fact that he said shows the country’s resilience and vitality.
Xi awarded Zhong Nanshan, the senior medical adviser and coronavirus expert who helped shape China’s reaction to COVID-19, with a Republic Medal, the country’s honor.
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Li Wenliang, the doctor who punished for disseminating data on a new infectious disease in Wuhan, whose death by COVID-19 in February provoked national outrage, is not mentioned.
Beijing was criticized at home and in the early days of the epidemic, and some described COVID-19 as “Chernobyl of China,” referring to the nuclear turn of the 1986 fate that destroyed confidence in the Soviet Union’s ability to govern.
The local government of Wuhan, the city where the coronavirus was first identified, has been accused of a cover-up that delayed the country’s emergency reaction for at least two weeks.
But as infections spread around the world as they slow down nationally, Beijing is more assertive, resistant to global research into the origins of the epidemic, and says its immediate movements have helped buy time for other countries to prepare.
State media highlighted Xi in containment of the virus in China.
Official news firm Xinhua said Tuesday in a lengthy special report that Xi had worked tirelessly since January and had even suffered sleepless nights while “taking on the incredibly complicated project of fighting the epidemic. “
Beijing has tried to focus on China’s good luck in defeating the virus, which in its origins.
During a government to Wuhan last week, hounds were shown the reopening of schools and tourist sites, but were not allowed to report from Huanan Seafood Market, where the outbreak is believed to have originated.
“The narrative of conversion is facilitated by the good fortune of the government by containing the spread and has been good at home, even if it is not as good around the world as it would like,” said Yanzhong Huang, council principal investigator. foreign affairs, an American panel of experts.
(Report through David Stanway, Martin Pollard and Lusha Zhang; Edited through Tony Munroe and Michael Perry)