Opinion | When COVID doesn't matter, and then it does
By Tom Fowdy
"China has outlined the way it counts COVID-19 deaths amid skepticism about the real impact of the disease"- a BBC report byline reads. The article, which doesn't even try to hide under the guise of impartiality, is quite clearly insinuating China of staging a coverup in regard to its COVID-19 death toll. As a new COVID wave sweeps the country following the government's decision to scale back its policy, the western media have not spread a single moment in going full-throttle to depict the new scenario as a disaster for Beijing.
As such, an old playbook that has not been seen since the days of Wuhan has been taken out: that is accusing China of covering up or downplaying its death toll, in the view to pushing baseless and politically motivated speculation about a mighty hidden number of sorts. The BBC in particular is particularly insidious, as it had the cheek to push blatant propaganda claiming Chinese people were "starving to death" and "dying of other conditions" as a product of its zero-COVID policy, decrying it at every opportunity. The flip from one narrative to the other, has been quite shocking, and demonstrates the insincerity of the coverage.
Yet, there's one large elephant in the room here. The world has changed. The west has since moved on from government, and as such the alarmism that dictated western media coverage about outbreaks and deaths has long dissipated. When it comes to countries such as the US, the UK, or Australia, the answer is to simply pretend COVID no longer exists. Hence the British government proclaimed last year "freedom day". In doing so, the fact that astronomically large numbers of people in these countries died because of COVID-19 negligence from their respective governance, is ignored and viewed as politically inconsequential.
In the USA, the total confirmed death toll for COVID-19 exceeds over 1 million, and even as states don't even bother to properly report statistics on cases anymore, deaths can still rank as high as 700-1000 per day. In Britain, the death toll was over 213,000, one of the worst proportionally out of any developed country in the world. But in the official narrative, none of this matters anymore and the respective governments have not had to face any political consequences for it. In the UK, the angriest people got about COVID was the fact that the government couldn't keep its own rules it was legally imposing on others, the infamous "party gate", and the scope of death was inconsequential.
Rather, despite the gruesome human toll of these approaches to COVID, the narrative depicted these countries "roaring back" in terms of recovery, especially the American economy, where media coverage is always positive no matter what the circumstances (in contrast to negativity pertaining to China). One would assume theoretically looking at these strategies, that "freedom" was the only way, and therefore ought it not to be a good thing that China has finally got rid of that evil and "oppressive" zero-COVID policy? Right? Isn't it good that the Chinese people have finally been listened to?
Nope. The media simply flipped from one narrative, to the other, and despite having happily ignored mass casualties at home from COVID-19, be it in Britain or America, the same is now depicted as nothing short of disastrous for Beijing, and it has taken less than a week for allegations of a coverup to be pushed out of political opportunism. 1 million US deaths is freedom, recovery and growth, but any deaths in China is because Xi Jinping and the Communist Party is bad, and that truly highlights the mind baffling irrationality and double standard vested in the media narrative. As was pointed out to me by a user on Twitter earlier, who holds the iconic name "But at what cost?" which is a play on a common mainstream media line of attack against China. The account noted, if the country's deaths are low, then it's a political coverup and China is hiding it, but if the deaths are high, then it's because China's governance is bad.
This all accumulates in the bizarre scenario whereby a virus that people have long been told is irrelevant at home and no longer a threat, is certainly relevant again with respect to China. It might be added that China is the only single country in the world where the mainstream media are still talking about outbreaks of COVID-19 and in turn, weaponizing it as a political stick. Finally, it cannot be stressed enough that the deaths of one million Americans is just dismissed, yet any toll by China similar to that will be framed as a Communist or Mao-laden mass atrocity. In other words, you shouldn't care about COVID anymore, unless China is involved.
The author is a well-seasoned writer and analyst with a large portfolio related to China topics, especially in the field of politics, international relations and more. He graduated with an Msc. in Chinese Studies from Oxford University in 2018.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Tom Fowdy:
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