Based on Sekihei’s column in the Sankei Shimbun, this article discusses how the Chinese government’s information concealment and speech control during the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak made many Chinese citizens realize the importance of freedom of speech. It points to the failures of the Central Propaganda Department, online backlash against praise of Xi Jinping, and the political instability exposed within the Chinese Communist Party system.

March 19, 2020
Reflecting on the fact that a series of information concealment and controls carried out by the government in the early stage of the spread of the coronavirus encouraged its spread and brought enormous damage to ordinary citizens, many Chinese people personally realized the importance of freedom of speech.
The following is from Sekihei’s serial column published in today’s Sankei Shimbun.
His essay also proves that the most decent newspaper in Japan today is the Sankei Shimbun.
The Communist Party defeated by online public opinion
In China, related sectors such as newspapers, television, and publishing are collectively called the “propaganda front,” and they are under the unified command of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department.
Once the Central Propaganda Department decides on some policy, the “propaganda front” throughout the country begins to move in perfect unison and carries out planned propaganda activities.
That is its characteristic.
But recently, an unimaginable disorder has begun to appear in this “propaganda front.”
In late February, while the new coronavirus was raging throughout the country, China’s “propaganda front” all began advance publicity for a book scheduled to be published on the 1st of this month.
The title of the book was “A Great Power’s War on the Epidemic.”
Its content praised the Communist Party regime for leading the people in the fight against the new coronavirus.
However, once the 1st arrived, publicity for this book stopped completely, and its sale was also suddenly suspended.
Even now, the sale of this book, which should already have been printed, remains in limbo.
It is obvious that this was a major blunder for the propaganda department.
The cause was fierce backlash on the internet against the announced contents of the book.
In particular, when the contents of the book were announced as praising President Xi Jinping’s “strategic foresight” and “outstanding leadership” in responding to the new coronavirus, internet citizens raised objections all at once and rebelled.
As a result, the sale of this book, into which the propaganda department had poured its efforts, was forced to be suspended.
This can be described as the result of the mighty Central Propaganda Department being defeated by online public opinion, or by the voice of the people represented by that online public opinion.
An abnormal development concerning propaganda about President Xi also occurred elsewhere.
On the 6th of this month, Wang Zhonglin, the newly appointed secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee, said at a meeting on responding to the new coronavirus, “We must educate citizens and make them feel gratitude for the General Secretary and the Party.”
From the next morning, this remark was widely reported by many domestic news sites, including the official website of the local Changjiang Daily, but the backlash online was even more intense.
Voices of indignation overflowed, saying, “While the citizens of Wuhan are suffering, what is this about ‘gratitude’?”
Then, in the afternoon of that same day, Wang’s remark was simultaneously deleted from every domestic news site, including the above-mentioned official website of the Changjiang Daily.
This was truly a perfectly unified action under the command of the Central Propaganda Department.
In just one week, the powerful Central Propaganda Department, which had seemed capable of knocking down even flying birds, experienced two “defeats.”
Behind this, first of all, there is likely a change in the consciousness of the Chinese people concerning “speech” that has occurred since the spread of the new coronavirus.
Reflecting on the fact that a series of information concealment and controls carried out by the government in the early stage of the spread of the coronavirus encouraged its spread and brought enormous damage to ordinary citizens, many Chinese people personally realized the importance of freedom of speech.
As a result, online public opinion has now gained many times more momentum than before and has begun to possess enough power to overwhelm the Central Propaganda Department and the “propaganda front” under its guidance.
Another fact that has become visible from the Central Propaganda Department’s two “defeats” is that public dissatisfaction with, and resistance to, President Xi himself are rising.
Whenever someone praises President Xi’s “outstanding leadership” or calls for “gratitude” toward President Xi, it inevitably provokes fierce backlash online and is completely rejected.
One can understand that President Xi has become extremely disliked.
The Central Propaganda Department forced into defeat, and President Xi disliked by the people.
What will be born from such major political changes?
I would like to watch future developments closely.