Chinese City Inadvertently Exposes CCP’s Deceptive Pandemic Control

Residents receive COVID-19 testing in Ruili, southeastern China's Yunnan Province on Sept. 15, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Commentary

The world will never know the true number of infections and deaths caused by the CCP virus in mainland China. Chinese authorities and state media have continued to downplay the recent resurgence of COVID-19 outbreaks in various regions across the country. However, a city in the southern province of Yunnan provides a glimpse into some of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s deceptive pandemic control measures.

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus is also known as the novel coronavirus and causes the COVID-19 disease.

On April 11, Chinese state media Xinhua published a positive report, claiming that as of April 10, there were no new confirmed cases of the CCP virus—both symptomatic and asymptomatic—in Yunnan Province. It also claimed there were 88 confirmed cases and 39 asymptomatic carriers at the time.

While the communist officials tried to play down the outbreak in the province, authorities in Ruili city announced the rollout of the third round of full-scale COVID-19 testing.

Why a Ruili City Official Was Fired

On April 9, Ruili announced that the second round of its full-scale nucleic acid testing was completed, with 382,568 samples taken, of which 18 tested positive—a significant drop from the 90 cases detected in the first round of testing.

Evidently, the removal of the Ruili’s Party Secretary, Gong Yunzun, on April 8, had an immediate impact—Chinese media reported that the city was suddenly “completely cleared” of CCP virus cases. It appears that no one in the city is willing to take the blame anymore, and as a result, no one will risk disclosing any confirmed virus cases to the public.

However, on April 10, Xinhua published an article saying that Ruili will carry out a third round of full-scale nucleic acid testing.

If the outbreak in Ruili really cleared up, why would the city go ahead with another full-scale testing mandate, as well as travel restrictions, large gathering bans, and stay-at-home quarantine orders?

All the residents have already undergone stay-at-home quarantines, yet still they must go through another mass gathering for a third full-scale testing event.

In its last briefing, the city stopped providing information on how many close contact persons have been tracked down in the contact tracing process. But prior to that, on the eve of the Party Secretary’s dismissal, the city announced that as of April 7, a total of 8,162 close contacts and indirect close contacts have been tracked down in their ongoing contact tracing investigation.

This could be one of the reasons why Gong was removed from his post, as he couldn’t wait to show off how well he had done to contain the outbreak by revealing the actual number of close contacts—8,162—a figure deemed disproportionately high given that 68 confirmed cases and 46 asymptomatic carriers had been announced by local authorities on April 6.

At the same time, the National Health Commission (NHC) announced that 7,550 close contacts and 295 cases of asymptomatic infections were under medical observation. And yet, in a small city such as Ruili alone, 8,162 people had to be placed under medical observation! By revealing the city’s real numbers, Gong had inadvertently exposed how the CCP significantly downplays the severity of the pandemic. So, how could he not be removed from his post?

The CCP Can Hardly Cover Up Its Lies

Following Gong’s removal, Ruili authorities not only hastily declared that the city was “completely cleared” of the CCP virus, but also abruptly stopped disclosing any further details, including the number of close contacts being tracked down.

Yet, in the meantime, the city has announced that it is carrying out a third round of citywide testing. What’s the actual situation of the pandemic in Ruili now? It seems quite obvious as to what’s going on.

The streets are empty in Ruili, southwestern China's Yunnan Province on April 1, 2021. (The Epoch Times)

On April 10, the NHC reported 10 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, along with 22 new asymptomatic carriers that have popped up across China—Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Sichuan. This brings the national total to 7,649 close contacts and 296 asymptomatic carriers, or a combined total count of 7,945 under medical observation.

Obviously, those 8,162 people from Ruili, who should have been placed under medical observation, never made it into the national statistics compiled by the NHC.

The CCP’s media outlets, meanwhile, are busy singing the praises of Ruili being “completely cleared” and continue to avoid reporting on local COVID-19 outbreaks across mainland China. They thought that by not giving it any coverage, the outbreaks would go unnoticed, but unfortunately, they miscalculated again.

News Story Repeats Itself

It’s noteworthy that Chinese media publishes articles that have similar content on COVID-19 infection cases.

Beijing’s mouthpiece People’s Daily reported on March 27 that a person surnamed Wu of Jiujiang city, Jiangxi Province, was placed under a 14-day quarantine as he entered Nanjing on March 1. After being released from quarantine on March 15, Wu boarded a home-bound train for Jiujiang. Upon arrival in Jiujiang the following day, he was immediately taken to a local quarantine site where he tested positive for the CCP virus. On March 20, he developed a fever and other symptoms.

Subsequently, a person surnamed Zhang, who had taken the same train car as Wu, was tracked down and tested positive on the eighth day of quarantine.

On April 11, the Qingdao Municipal Health Commission (QMHC) of Shandong Province issued an urgent notice, claiming that a resident tested positive for the CCP virus after returning from Nanjing city, Jiangsu Province, according to Chinese media reports. The man had gone to Nanjing on March 26 and left for Qingdao by train on April 9, the same day he was released from a quarantine center in Nanjing. As soon as he got off the train in Qingdao, he was taken to a local quarantine site and tested positive for the virus. The QMHC said that it is now urgently looking into how many passengers may have been in direct and indirect contact with the man on the train.

These two cases follow an almost identical script and why do they repeat themselves in the mainland? Are they true stories? It seems more likely that the storyline was made up when the reality of the ongoing pandemic could no longer be covered up.

The Chinese authorities’ coverup is full of loopholes and even Chinese media have picked up on this. On April 11, Xinhua posted a commentary titled, “Political Manipulation of the Origin of COVID-19—Vile and Sinister!”

Isn’t the CCP the culprit and the most “sinister” regime in the world?

Zhong Yuan is a researcher focused on China’s political system, the country’s democratization process, human rights situation, and Chinese citizens’ livelihood. He began writing commentaries for the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times in 2020.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.