China wants to take a victory lap over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak
Posted on March 16th, 2020
Analysis by James Griffiths, CNN
Hong Kong (CNN)China’s Communist Party wants more gratitude for its handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak.Speaking Friday, Wang Zhonglin, party chief of Wuhan, the virus-hit capital of Hubei province, said that people in the city — much of which remains on lockdown — were not appreciative enough.It is necessary, Wang reportedly said, “to carry out gratitude education among the citizens of the whole city, so that they thank (President Xi Jinping), thank the Chinese Communist Party, heed the party, walk with the party, and create strong positive energy.”His comments attracted widespread criticism online, and have since been mostly scrubbed by the censors, though some state media reports including the quote remain accessible. Yet while Wang appears to have gone too far in the eyes of many — creating a public relations headache the propaganda apparatus had to clean up — the sentiment he was expressing is nevertheless widely shared.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/10/asia/china-coronavirus-propaganda-intl-hnk/index.html