Question: If this CNN piece about the supposedly “staggering” success of China’s COVID-19 response had been written in its entirety by the Chinese government, how differently would it read?
My favorite part:
For those still reluctant, China has a powerful tool in its arsenal: a top-down, one-party system that is all-encompassing in reach and forceful in action, and a sprawling bureaucracy that can be swiftly mobilized.
Well, that’s certainly one way of describing the Chinese Communist Party.
But wait, there’s more!
The top-down approach has been touted by officials as a strength of the Chinese system that helped curb the virus — and has again been deployed to accelerate inoculations.
Breaking: The Chinese Communist Party is impressed by the way the Chinese Communist Party works.
Apparently, at no point did any of this cause the two authors of the piece to wonder whether building an entire argument around the phrase “according to data from China’s National Health Commission” was a good idea.