Is China’s progress on coronavirus real?

Leaders of China’s government have already come under fire for handling the viral outbreak so badly. They kept its deadly effects quiet from both their populace and the world, silencing doctors, researchers, and the public from speaking about the scourge that was evident in Wuhan.

Beijing has an interest in making sure it looks like Wuhan is at least on the mend, if not fully recovered. Officials have demanded the appearance of recovery, even if factories are not quite up and running. Civil servants, who remain anonymous, have told Caixan that electricity is being turned on just for show, and machines are humming along without being manned, simply so that officials can say that things are getting back to normal.

As early as February 24, Beijing said that 98.6 percent of its pre-coronavirus capacity had been restored. But much of that is likely to have been subsidized by local governments that were footing the bill for utility costs, and pushing mandatory productivity quotas, then falsifying the numbers.

There is reason to believe that these numbers have been faked, that they are only in place to boost Beijing’s ego, and appeal to a global community that has bottomed out on the communist party’s lies.

So why should we believe China today when they tell us that they’ve totally got the virus thing licked?

OAN’s Jack Posobiec tweeted out footage of a long line outside of a Wuhan hospital just yesterday.

Are there truly no new cases of coronavirus in China? Should we trust the Chinese communist government on this? They are proven liars when it comes to this pandemic. Look no further than their lies on the original outbreak and containment to confirm this fact.

We have created a global economy that has changed the face of our interdependence. The downside is that in doing so, we have placed too much trust in a totalitarian regime toplay fair and be honest—a totalitarian regime, by the way, that recently threatened to “plunge the United States into ‘the mighty sea of coronavirus.’” The goal of hitching our wagon to China’s star may have been for mutual benefit, but the result has been an unhealthy dependence on an untrustworthy partner.

In his press conference today, President Trump noted that due to the coronavirus pandemic “we've learned a lot about trusting other countries in a good way and a bad way.” He’s not wrong.

Beijing is a proven bad actor with regards to this pandemic, and while news of a recovery may be heartening, it requires independent verification from trusted western sources before we can believe it.