Seki Hei and Kumiko Takeuchi discuss how the Chinese Communist Party prioritized propaganda over protecting human life during the spread of COVID-19.
Their dialogue examines China’s attempt to shift responsibility for the Wuhan virus onto Japan and the United States, and the danger of a propaganda system that seeks to transform repeatedly asserted falsehoods into accepted “historical truth.”

June 24, 2020
China’s Coronavirus Propaganda War Reveals the Lie of the “Nanjing Massacre”—The Terrifying Chinese Communist Strategy of Turning Repeated Lies into “Truth”
The following is taken from a special dialogue between Seki Hei and Kumiko Takeuchi, published in the July issue of the monthly magazine WiLL under the title, “China’s Coronavirus Propaganda War Reveals the Lie of the Nanjing Massacre.”
This special feature is essential reading not only for the Japanese people but also for people throughout the world.
All emphasis in the text, other than the headings, is mine.
In a World Where a Lie Repeated Often Enough Eventually Becomes the Truth—Therein Lies the Terror of the Chinese Communist Party
Propaganda Operations Always Take Priority
Seki
It is a pleasure to meet you.
Takeuchi
The pleasure is mine.
I am familiar with your work.
Does the “Wuhan virus” not appear to be taking on the character of a Third World War?
China and pro-China countries versus all the other nations.
Amid all this, the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda war has been extraordinary, has it not?
Seki
China has traditionally attached great importance to propaganda warfare.
One indication of this is that January 20 was the first day on which the central government officially acknowledged the spread of the virus in Wuhan.
Five days later, a countermeasures team was established.
Premier Li Keqiang was placed at its head, but the identity of one of its deputy leaders is astonishing.
It was Wang Huning, one of the members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party, the country’s supreme leadership body.
His area of responsibility is ideology and propaganda!
Takeuchi
Even though this was supposed to be an infectious-disease task force….
Seki
The head of the Chinese Communist Party’s Propaganda Department was also included in the countermeasures team.
Strangely, however, neither the minister responsible for public health nor the head of the National Health Commission participated.
Takeuchi
That proves how much importance they place on the propaganda war（笑）。
Do they simply not care whether the infectious disease spreads?
Seki
The Chinese Communist Party regards “infectious-disease countermeasures” as synonymous with “propaganda operations.”
Rather than protecting the lives of the people, its entire concern is how to deceive the people through propaganda and how to mislead the international community.
There is a precedent.
In 2008, shortly before the Beijing Olympic Games, the devastating Sichuan earthquake occurred.
On that very day, then-premier Wen Jiabao visited the disaster-stricken region.
At the same time, however, a central propaganda conference was being held in Beijing.
In other words, propaganda operations were given priority, while the rescue and relief of the disaster victims came afterward.
Takeuchi
This reveals the extraordinary nature of the Chinese Communist Party.
China has begun a campaign claiming that the Wuhan virus did not originate in China, but instead came from Japan or the United States.
I would not expect the international community to be deceived by such a lie, but when we look at China’s past conduct, we cannot afford to dismiss that possibility.
Were matters handled badly, several decades from now this claim might become established as though it were the “truth,” just as the so-called “Nanjing Massacre” has been.
In fact, there are respects in which Japan has already been defeated by China’s relentless propaganda war.
Is the recent screening of school textbooks not proof of that?
References to the Nanjing Incident continue to remain in textbooks indefinitely.