(Minghu.org) The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s cover-up of and disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in one of the worst pandemics in recent history, infecting more than two million people and killing nearly 150,000 around the world as of April 16, 2020.
As countries outside of China are seeking to hold the CCP responsible for starting the pandemic, the CCP has begun to tone down its recent propaganda war and tighten up its grip over publication of coronavirus research papers.
According to insiders, the CCP’s Central Publicity Department (also known as the Propaganda Department) issued an urgent notice urging the state-owned or state-affiliated media to reduce reports boasting China’s “victory” in the fight against the virus and bashing foreign countries’ “failure” in handling the pandemic.
In the meantime, both China’s State Council and Education Ministry also issued orders mandating all research papers related to the coronavirus outbreak must be approved by the Education Ministry's Division of Science and Technology before publication.
Propaganda Toned Down
The Central Publicity Department's notice sent to all news media calls for an immediate end to reports casting China as a victor in the coronavirus battle and a savior of the world as other countries are grappling with the pandemic. The notice said this decision is a “painful decision made based on the current situation” by top leaders.
The Publicity Department played a critical role in China’s media campaign regarding the coronavirus (also known as the CCP Virus) pandemic. Three days after Wuhan was locked down to slow the spread of the disease, the central government coronavirus task force was launched on January 26. Its members were selected from the Central Publicity Department and the Ministry of Public Security. On its first day in existence, the task force issued a policy forbidding medical personnel from discussing the disease at home or elsewhere through phone calls, texts, social media, or emails. Violators would be sentenced to three to seven years in prison.
Zhang Zhenyu, a former reporter for a pro-CCP media, Phoenix TV, told a Minghui correspondent that after Beijing claimed the disease was under control, 300 strictly-screened reporters were dispatched to Wuhan to report on the situation. He said, “The main task of the 300 reporters was to paint the picture that the epidemic has indeed gone away and new cases are no longer being detected. They keep repeating the lies until the public believes it.”
The CCP's lies have forced China and the rest of the world to pay a huge price, with lives lost, businesses shuttered, and people living in fear of catching the deadly disease.
Many officials in the United States, which has the most reported cases of infection and deaths outside of China, have called for distancing from the CCP. While appearing on the FOX Business Network's 'America Works Together' Town Hall on April 14, White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow recently said the U.S. should “pay the moving costs” of every American company that wants out of China. He made the comment after Japan announced that it would spend upwards of $2.2 billion to get its corporations out of China and either back home or re-located throughout southeast Asia.
China should be sued under international law for trillions of dollars for its initial cover-up of the coronavirus pandemic, due to the large number of deaths and huge financial losses, wrote a recent report from The Henry Jackson Society.
Titled “Coronavirus Compensation?” this report estimated the damage incurred by G7 nations alone could be at least £3.2 ($6.5) trillion. In the United States, the CARES Act alone costs $2.2 billion. Matthew Henderson, co-author of the report, said the Chinese people were also the victims of their government's negligence. “They are innocent victims, like the rest of us. This is the fault of the CCP,” he said.
Tightening Grip Over Coronavirus Research
Earlier scientific research published by Chinese medical professionals alerted the international community to the fact that Chinese authorities were made aware of the human-to-human transmission back in December 2019 and that the virus originated in Wuhan. Yet the CCP didn't publicly acknowledge this until late January 2020.
On March 25, 2020, China’s State Council held a meeting and issued a new policy mandating that all coronavirus research has to go through an approval process. No papers are to be published without approval. The Ministry of Education soon followed up and sent a notice to all universities and hospitals ordering them to develop guidelines to enforce this policy.
On April 6, 2020, Wuhan University Hospital and Hubei Province Hospital issued a notice (document number 2020KYC0018) to all subordinate hospitals saying that all papers that mention the origin of the virus must be approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The following day, the Ministry of Education sent another announcement to all colleges, emphasizing that papers discussing the origin of the virus were to be “regulated.” More specifically, “academic committees of these institutions need to review and approve such publications, and provide updates to education ministry officials.”
Related Article in Chinese:
http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2020/4/15/中共继续否认病毒始于武汉--从严管控相关论文-403880.html
Category: Wuhan Virus
