The Wuhan pneumonia which broke out in Wuhan, China, at end 2019/early 2020 has harmed China and the world significantly. To date, the number of cases and deaths are close to 86 million and 1.9 million respectively. In the past year, economies came to a standstill, businesses went bankrupt, classes were suspended, unemployment rate accelerated, medical facilities were overwhelmed, and people were deprived of freedom in many countries. More seriously, the pandemic which has lasted for a year does not show signs of bottoming out; new waves of outbreak has occurred one after another. In the new year, except for China, almost all countries have to make prevention and control of new outbreak top priority in government affairs. Nevertheless, many provinces and cities in China, including Beijing, have to lock down cities, districts, and villages.

The impact of Wuhan epidemic on world politics and economy will be long lasting. The U.S. election is the most matter of fact example. Ineffective response to the pandemic has become Democratic Party’s cannonball for attacking President Trump, the most accomplished president in terms of revitalizing the U.S. economy. The media in Europe have almost unanimously supported Biden and suppressed Trump. China’s CCTV Network News broadcasts every day the lists of new cases and deaths for the U.S. and for the whole world. Xinhua News Agency published “the gloomiest list of the year” on December 23, starting with French President Macron who has been tested positive for COVID, followed by the 94-year old former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing who died from COVID. “d’Estaing is not the first international dignitary to die because of COVID. Don’t forget that the much younger British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to ICU for emergency treatment. He has escaped the death door by a hair’s breadth.” The tone is easy, but the list is long and depressing: heads of states and ministers, including Macron and Trump, numbered almost fifty; next on the list are movie and sports stars. If the list were published this year, it must have included Fou Ts’ong, the Chinese born British pianist.

By comparison, what are the prevalent topics of discussion in Europe’s media? They have been talking about two topics related to China: firstly, the 2020 crisis proves that autocracy can create economic prosperity; secondly, China’s ability to overcome the crisis has strengthened Xi Jinping’s political power. Lemaître, the China correspondent of the French paper Le Monde reported that “China gloriously lived through the year 2020; China’s national flag was planted on the moon; China’s quantum computers made Western supercomputers obsolete; China pledged to provide tens of millions doses of vaccines to developing countries at a nominal price, China’s economy restarted and an investment agreement was signed with the European Union ... China is in sharp contrast with the pandemic-stricken Europe and U.S.”. German news portal t-online also published an article which explores whether the COVID crisis will make China the only superpower.

Although the U.S. is still entangled in conflicts over presidential election and the mainstream U.S. media support the Democratic Party unanimously, it is the common position of the two parties that those responsible for the Wuhan outbreak must be brought to account. According to Daily Mail, in a video conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China held last week, Matthew Pottinger, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor, pointed out that: “There is a growing body of evidence that the top secret Wuhan Institute of virology is likely the most credible source of the virus”. He claimed that the incident could have been “a leak or an accident”. Duncan Smith, former leader of the British Conservative Party who has participated in the video conference, commented that Pottinger’s statement shows that the U.S. has determined that Wuhan Institute of Virology is the culprit of the pandemic. Smith also said that the U.S. may have nailed down key witnesses.

Shifting the blame on American soldiers and other countries is the wolf warrior tactics that China has been using in the past year to cover up the origin of the Wuhan virus, to shirk responsibility, and to refuse claims for compensation. On top of this, the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, the settling of old scores with members of Demosisto, the arrest and trial of 12 Hong Kongers by mainland authorities, have renewed the West’s understanding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The Trump administration has repeatedly introduced sanctions against China since the start of the Sino-US trade war. The U.S. Congress has passed 10 China-related bills in 2020, covering areas of technological competition, trade and investment, and human rights in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. At the end of last year, the Wall Street Journal published a 7,000-word article " How the U.S. Misread China’s Xi: Hoping for a Globalist, It Got an Autocrat”.

The spread of the Wuhan epidemic to the world will definitely be on the agenda of the trial of CCP’s crimes in the future, and Xi Jinping himself has been playing along. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the essence of all conference speeches has been “four consciousnesses” and “two safeguards.” On the last day of 2020, Chen Yixin, the Chinese politician who proposes " Xi Jinping Thought is 21st Century Marxism”, published an article in People’s Daily “Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law is the Latest Achievement of the Sinicization of Marxism”, pointing out the gist of the matter. Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law is a weapon that will wreck world politics.

(Lui Yue, a veteran Chinese journalist)

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