By Li Ping

China is holding a commendation ceremony for the fight against COVID-19, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General-Secretary Xi Jinping is going to award the national medals and deliver an important speech, as the official reports said. Major Chinese newspapers headlined the article “A chronicle of fighting the epidemic altogether” by Xinhua News Agency’s president, which sets the tone for China’s fight against the epidemic as “first to report, first to fight”, and avoids the issue of the virus being concealed. Since Xi Jinping’s speech on Sep. 3 at a symposium commemorating the 75th anniversary of the victory of the second Sino-Japanese War, or War of Resistance against the Japanese, this is the second time within a week to redefine major events. It shows the urgency of the CCP to consolidate its leadership through resistance against Japan and the epidemic. Moreover, it shows that what has not been declared by the CCP is that they will never agree to the decoupling between China and the United States, nor the decoupling between the CCP and the Chinese people.

Five years ago, the CCP held a ceremony and military parade to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance in which Xi Jinping’s speech was rather short. In less than 1,800 words, the theme was that justice prevails, peace prevails, the people prevail, and he announced the disarmament of 300,000. Five years on, Xi Jinping’s speech on Sep. 3 was 5,400 words long. In addition to emphasizing the CCP’s mainstay role in the War of Resistance, he put forth the five “Never Promises”, which were not even necessarily related to the war. The Chinese people will never agree to: Any attempt by anyone or any forces to vilify the nature and purpose of the CCP; distort and change the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics; separate the CCP from the Chinese people using antagonism; change the direction of China through bullying; and undermine the exchanges and cooperation between the Chinese people and the people of other countries.

The five “Never Promises” clearly have little to do with the theme of the symposium. They were not aimed at Japan, but the United States, especially the latter’s recent remarks that deliberately distinguish between the CCP and China. These declarations against the United States may sound tough, but they are more like empty threats, because what the CCP will “never promise” is the decoupling of China and the United States. An op-ed by state mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency said it loud and clear, “Some American politicians want to use the “decoupling theory” to control reality and stop the general trend. What silly, wishful thinking.”

If the Sino-U.S. decoupling will deprive China of its economic development momentum, and bring about challenges to the ruling authority of the CCP, then the CCP is more frightened of the decoupling between the party and the people. With this, the CCP leaders not only lose face on the outside, but their symbolism and legitimacy within the country will be substantively challenged. Therefore, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian claimed, “The Chinese people are the ‘copper walls and iron façades’, don’t you or anyone dare to shatter it.”

However, the outbreak of COVID not only altered the relationship between the CCP and the Chinese people, but also changed the relationship between democratic countries, such as the United States, and China. A long article by a CCP mouthpiece proclaimed, “China took the lead in reporting, and took the lead to fight. This is an attitude of responsibility to all mankind, the launch of a people’s war, a general war, and a sniper war on epidemic prevention and control.” But the universal consensus is that China concealed the coronavirus epidemic in Wuhan from the get-go, causing the epidemic to become a global pandemic that is now a catastrophe of the century. Whistleblowers like Dr. Li Wenliang, and the others were purged. How has that now turned into China taking the lead in reporting? How has the promotion of the Chinese model through anti-epidemic diplomacy turned into China taking the lead in fighting?

Especially worthy of contemplation is that the CCP’s two resets of major events were so close in time. The official statement even emphasized that COVID is “the most serious global public health emergency since the end of World War II” in an attempt to strengthen the connection between the two events. That seems to be an effort in highlighting the CCP as the mainstay of the resistance against both Japan and the virus, and that both of these fights are chances of a renaissance of the Chinese nation.

If the War of Resistance allowed the CCP to shake off the besiegement and suppression of the Kuomingtang, which led to its eventual victory in seizing power, then the resistance against the epidemic is throwing the CCP into the besiegement and suppression of the civilized world. The CCP wishes to reset the tone for the fight against the epidemic, to promote “the fair and mutually-beneficial Sino-U.S. cooperation meets the common interests of the people of the two countries and the world”. It wishes to seek to remain un-decoupled from the United States and from its people, to continue to act as the representatives of the interests of the Chinese people, the interests of China and the United States, and the interests of the world, while at the same time, tooting Xi Jinping’s horn as the “leader of a major power who serves the people, is driven by mission, possesses strategic visions and outstanding leadership.” Are his achievements not far more superior than winning World War II, and enough to lead the reform of the global governance system, to build a community of common destiny of mankind? The question, however, is, who in the world is eating this up?

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