China Briefing | Amid China’s coronavirus success, low marks for local ‘social credit’ apps

Name: Experts who helped China fight Covid-19 receive top honours from President Xi Jinping
Uploaded: 2020-09-12T01:45:16.000Z
Duration: 1 min 57 s
Description: Experts who helped China fight Covid-19 receive top honours from President Xi Jinping

Mainland Chinese have made great sacrifices of their personal freedom and rights for the sake of the common good

But some are pushing back as local officials, buoyed by China’s Covid-19 success, seek to expand the use of health apps to incorporate social credit points

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Some local Chinese officials are seeking to further strengthen social controls and regulate people’s lives. Photo: AP

Wang Xiangwei

Published: 9:45am, 12 Sep 2020Updated: 4:36pm, 12 Sep 2020

At A time when the deadly coronavirus pandemic rages in much of the world and the global number of confirmed cases hurtles towards the 30-million mark, China’s celebration on Tuesday of its success against the virus first identified in Wuhan in December was much more than taking a victory lap.

China’s hard-won fight has further bolstered the authority of President Xi Jinping, who used the occasion to extol merits of the one-party rule after the Chinese leadership’s credibility took a beating at home and abroad because of its initial bungled handling of the outbreak.

In a lengthy speech at the Great Hall of the People, Xi said that the strong leadership of the Communist Party was “the most reliable backbone” for the Chinese people in times of crisis.

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Experts who helped China fight Covid-19 receive top honours from President Xi Jinping

By Thursday, the Chinese mainland had a cumulative total of about 85,000 confirmed cases and about 4,600 deaths, and it had reported no locally-transmitted cases in 25 days. Worldwide, the total number of infections is 28 million and 900,000 have died from the disease, with the pandemic showing no sign of abating.

The state media has continuously run articles contrasting China’s win and the failure of Western countries, notably the United States, in containing the pandemic.

Helping to strengthen the party’s narrative are Western media reports of protests against mask-wearing and lockdowns which have already proven to be effective in curbing the virus’ spread in China, but are frowned upon in the West in the name of personal freedom. So are disturbing suggestions by politicians including Tony Abbott, Australia’s former prime minister, that some elderly Covid-19 patients should be left to die naturally because of the high costs to keep them alive.

In his speech, Xi particularly pointed out that the Chinese authorities had made all-out efforts to ensure no patient was left unattended to, whether it was a 30-hour-old baby or a centenarian, and all medical costs had been borne by the government.

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