50 The EconomistMarch 14th 2020
1S
even weeksafter cordoning off Hubei,
the Communist Party is itching to de-
clare victory over the novel coronavirus
that has swept across the country from that
central province. On March 10th the coun-
try’s leader, Xi Jinping, visited Hubei’s capi-
tal, Wuhan, for the first time since the lock-
down. He spoke by videolink to patients at
an army-run hospital there. He also visited
a residential area (see picture) to see how
Wuhan’s citizens—most of whom are still
under orders to stay at home—are coping
with quarantine. Mr Xi said the spread of
the virus had been “basically” curbed.
Official figures are certainly encourag-
ing. On the day of Mr Xi’s trip only 19 con-
firmed new infections were recorded in
China, down from thousands at the peak of
the outbreak in February. About three-
quarters of the 80,000 or so people known
to have caught the virus in China are now
said to have recovered from it. Officials in
Wuhan have closed makeshift wards in
public buildings such as sports centres and
exhibition halls. Local governments in
less-affected parts of Hubei say they are be-ginning to relax travel restrictions in the
hope that people can get back to work. Chi-
na is now stressing the importance of mak-
ing sure that travellers from countries
where infections are rising do not bring the
pathogen with them. On March 11th city of-
ficials in Beijing said passengers flying into
the capital’s airports from abroad must
spend 14 days in self-quarantine.
China’s growing confidence in its strug-
gle with the epidemic is evident in its pro-
paganda. State media increasingly crow
about the party’s strengths in handling the
crisis. Their editorials marking Mr Xi’s visit
to Wuhan proclaimed the success of Chi-
na’s anti-virus measures, which have re-
quired hundreds of millions of people to
submit to quarantine, and gave the credit to
China’s political system. People who use
the crisis to “smear” the country’s politicsare “immoral and despicable” said Xinhua,
a state news agency. With the virus now
threatening to damage the health and live-
lihoods of people globally, the party ap-
pears keener than ever to deflect criticism
of its own bungling in the early days of the
outbreak when news of its spread was sup-
pressed. On March 10th a Chinese maga-
zine, Renwu, published an interview with
Ai Fen, one of several doctors in Wuhan
who are known to have been muzzled by
officials for discussing the virus online
soon after its discovery. Censors quickly
pulled the story from Renwu’s website.
Ordinary Chinese are relieved by the
sharp drop in daily numbers of confirmed
new infections. Many show remarkable
tolerance for the lengthy quarantines they
have had to suffer. But there is much
grumbling online about the behaviour of
some officials during the outbreak, and
less full-throated praise for the merits of
one-party rule than officials would like to
see. Tensions have been particularly evi-
dent in Wuhan. In early March quarantined
residents in one housing complex shouted
down from their windows as Sun Chunlan,
a deputy prime minister, was being shown
round. They warned her that officials in
their neighbourhood were putting on a
“fake” show of relief efforts in order to im-
press her. The hecklers explained that they
were having problems getting deliveries of
groceries, among other difficulties. Videos
of the incident spread online. Unusually,
state media broadcast footage of the inci-Politics and the coronavirusA gesture to the sequestered
BEIJING
The leadership appears confident that the covid-19 epidemic has abated. Many
citizens are not yet celebratingChina
51 Covid-19 and farmers
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