(Minghui.org) “You and your companions will have days like this in the future, in which you struggle against yourself to cleanse the trash and toxins that were poured into your teenaged minds,” wrote Fang Fang in her response to a letter purportedly from a 16-year-old who scolded her for criticizing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s epidemic response.
The Wall Street Journal cited the above words in an article published on April 1, 2020, titled “A Wuhan Writer Rages Against China's Communist Machine and Becomes an Online Star.”
Fang Wang, who uses the pen name Fang Fang, is a 64-year-old writer in Wuhan who chronicled life under lockdown in her diaries posted on Chinese social media. Her authentic account of Wuhan residents' struggle under mass quarantine has won her praise from readers and garnered millions of views.
A New York Times article published on April 16, 2020 also cited excerpts of Fang Fang's response to the purported teenager. She wrote, “Child, you said you’re 16. When I was 16 it was 1971 and back then if someone had told me that the ‘Cultural Revolution is a calamity’ I would surely have taken him on till his head was covered in blood. I wouldn’t have listened, even if he tried to reason with me for three days and nights on end.” She said she had been brainwashed since her childhood to believe that everything the CCP did was good.
“But let me tell you, child, sooner or later your disbelief will be answered. That answer will have to come from you. In 10 years, maybe 20, there’ll come a day when you’ll think, wow, how childish and despicable I was back then,” she explained, “Because by then you may have become an entirely different you. Of course, if you take the path that those ultra-leftists want to lead you down, perhaps you’ll never get your own answer.”
The teenager's letter epitomized some Chinese people's misguided love for the CCP. Since its founding decades ago, the Party has been brainwashing its citizens in order to cast itself as the savior of Chinese people and to maintain its power. One tactic it often employs is to instigate hatred towards anyone who dares to speak the truth and unveil the CCP's true colors.
Fang Fang's courage to document Wuhan under lockdown made her a target of the CCP. The grave situation depicted in her diaries and experienced by many Wuhan residents have awakened many to the CCP's lying nature and disregard for human life.
CCP's Brainwashing Shapes Public Opinion
“Since a young age, we have thought of the U.S. as a lovable country. We believe this is partly due to the fact that the U.S. has never occupied China, nor has it launched any attacks on China. More fundamentally, the Chinese people hold good impressions of the U.S. based on the democratic and open-minded character of its people.”
The above words came from an article published in the CCP’s official newspaper, Xinhua Daily, on July 4, 1947. Just several years later, the CCP slapped the U.S. with the label of “vicious imperialism.” Its change in attitude was to justify its participation in the Korean War. “We should absolutely eliminate any thoughts of affinity or fear for the U.S. Instead, the general public [is] to treat the U.S. with hatred, loathing, and contempt,” instructed “A Notice from the Central CCP Committee on News and Propaganda.”
As a poem in Wen Wei Po reads: “Who drinks the blood of the Korean? Who drinks the blood of Chinese? Who drinks the blood of the world? Who drinks the blood of the American? It is American Imperialism!”
The CCP's brainwashing serves to divert people's attention and maintain its power. Anyone who dares to disagree with it is labeled a part of “anti-China forces” or an “anti-revolutionary” and punished.
What some Chinese people fail to recognize is that the CCP is not the same as the country of China and that disagreeing with the CCP does not mean that one does not love China. The abovementioned teenager who reprimanded Fang Fang for not loving China is one such example. And he was not the only one who hated and chastised Fang Fang for being unpatriotic.
Hatred in the Guise of Patriotism and Nationalism
Fang Fang wrote in a diary entry on March 23, “I expected at least some officials would resign [for not fulfilling their duties]—something like what had happened during the 2003 SARS.” She was sorely disappointed: “But this time, no officials were fired or made to resign. The funny thing is, while officials used to point fingers at each other, they now blame the United States [as the source of the virus].”
Many netizens in China attacked Fang Fang for revealing what happened in Wuhan for the whole world to see. Some of them called her a “traitor” or “violator of national interests,” and some threatened to hire thugs to kill her.
In response to these threats, Fang Fang said there was nothing she could do. But she wondered who posted the vicious attacks.
Compared to what Fang Fang faced, some truth-seekers were met with even harsher treatment. For example, Xu Zhangrun, a prominent professor at the well-known Tsinghua University, has been under house arrest for criticizing Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Ren Zhiqiang, a retired property tycoon, has also been “disappeared” in mid-March after criticizing Xi’s leadership in an essay he posted online, wrote the above-mentioned Wall Street Journal article.
Such patriotism and nationalism have been abused by the CCP to firm up its ideological control. “A restaurant in northern China put up a banner celebrating the virus’s spread in the United States. A widely circulated cartoon showed foreigners being sorted into trash bins,” reported The New York Times in an article titled “As Coronavirus Fades in China, Nationalism and Xenophobia Flare” on April 16: “Chinese people deemed insufficiently admiring of the government have been subjected to vitriolic online attacks by China’s army of ‘little pinks,’ a nickname for the generation of young digital warriors who pounce on any criticism of the Communist Party.”
Attempt to Export “Love” Backfires
As other countries grapple with increasing infection and death cases, China sold medical supplies to other nations to show its “love” for the international community. Its attempt to cast itself as a savior of the world and win more “love” from its own citizens backfired, however.
For example, 3.5 million testing kits imported by the U.K. were found to be inaccurate. The U.K. asked to return them for a refund. Similarly, only 20% to 30% of the testing kits imported by the Czech Republic and Spain passed testing. Other countries, such as the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Ireland, also had similar problems with defective medical supplies imported from China.
Facing the product returns as well as calls to hold the CCP responsible for causing the pandemic, the CCP began to tell Chinese people that other countries hated China when in fact its own cover-up of coronavirus outbreak was to blame.
For example, after the CCP announced the lockdown of Wuhan on January 23, the United States formed a team of 13 top medical professionals, hoping to support Wuhan and take samples for investigation. But their requests were repeatedly denied by the CCP. The rest of the world was forced to pay a huge price when they did not have accurate information from China to prepare for the pandemic.
Many countries have now been awakened by the reality. “In recent days, foreign leaders, even in friendly nations like Iran, have questioned China’s reported infections and deaths,” reported The New York Times on April 8 in an article titled “China's Coronavirus Battle is Waning.”
Wuhan Residents Awaken to the Harsh Reality
While some Chinese people are still misguided by the CCP, many residents at the epicenter, Wuhan, have awakened to the harsh reality of the CCP's disregard for life.
On March 23, Wuhan residents were told to pick up the urns of their loved ones who had died of the virus. There were long waiting lines at the funeral homes, where an average of 500 urns per funeral home were scheduled for distribution each day until the Qingming Festival (also known as Tomb Sweeping Day) on April 4. With eight funeral homes in Wuhan, the number of urns (500x8x14) would translate into over 40,000 deaths.
People were not allowed to take pictures or videos of the pickup sites. Anyone who tried to defy the order was stopped by plainclothes police officers or staff members. Those who were there to pick up urns must be accompanied by their supervisors at work or staff from their neighborhood committees. Otherwise, no urns would be distributed. Moreover, the urns had to be buried right afterward.
Voice of America (VOA) reported Wuhan resident Zhang Jun's story on April 4. Zhang’s 76-year-old father died on February 1. He contacted the funeral home in early March and was told to wait for a notice from the city’s Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center. Another call he placed in mid-March also received the same answer.
In the end, Zhang refused to pick up his father’s urn anymore because he refused to have someone from his workplace to accompany him to pick up the urn, as he felt he was being monitored while conducting personal business. He said he was disgusted by the policy.
Another Wuhan resident, whose father had also died of the virus, concurred, “Is this a burial? This is nothing more than monitoring. They are performing a political task—a task of maintaining stability. Throughout this whole process—from checking-in at the hospital, getting treated, to passing away and burial—we feel confused and there is no dignity.”
Say No to the CCP
On March 18, The Epoch Times proposed to refer to the virus as the CCP Virus due to the Chinese Communist Party's continued cover-ups and disinformation. Josh Rogin, a columnist for The Washington Post, agreed. In his March 19 article titled “Don’t blame ‘China’ for the coronavirus — blame the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote, “Let’s just call it the ‘CCP virus.’ That’s more accurate and offends only those who deserve it.”
As the CCP virus ravages the world, it is time for those Chinese who still believe in the Communist Party’s lies to ponder whether their misguided love for the CCP has enabled the regime to further cover up the pandemic and cause more damage to China and other nations. They need to distance themselves from the regime for safety and peace.
Category: Perspective
