Originally published on February 11, 2020. This article introduces a commentary by Yoshihisa Komori in the Sankei Shimbun and argues that the spread of the novel coronavirus exposed the Chinese Communist Party regime’s concealment of information, suppression of speech, and prioritization of social control over human life. It also discusses American media criticism of China, the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, doubts about NHK’s reporting, and the impropriety of Japan’s plan to invite Xi Jinping as a state guest.

February 11, 2020
This incident will expose the weakness of the Chinese Communist Party regime as an example of its prioritizing social control over the lives of its own people, and it will drastically change the world’s image of China.
There were several articles today as well that prove that the Sankei Shimbun is now the most decent newspaper.
In this essay, speaking only of NHK’s reporting, NHK’s reporting does not convey the truth about China at all, or else it does not try to convey it; it is timid about doing so, and this is a fatal wound for a news organization.
When it comes to anti-Trump reporting, NHK cites editorials and commentaries from the New York Times and others, but when the matter becomes criticism of China, it does not cite New York Times commentaries at all.
The unnaturalness of that is astonishing.
The Disease of the Xi Regime Exposed by the Epidemic
In the United States, regarding the explosive spread of the coronavirus infection in China, the perception has been spreading that it represents the exposure of fundamental defects in Communist Party dictatorship, and in particular a failure and crisis of the Xi Jinping regime.
There is also the view that this incident will change the whole world’s view of China and actually weaken China.
In the current public and private debate in the United States over the Chinese coronavirus, unlike in Japan, the word “pneumonia” is not used at all.
This is probably because there is no basis for calling this infectious disease pneumonia, and its actual nature remains unknown.
By early February, the view had taken root in various circles in the United States that this infectious disease should be connected not only to a public health crisis but also to the very nature of the state called China, and that the Xi dictatorship should be criticized.
Nicholas Kristof, a veteran diplomatic correspondent for the New York Times and also known as an authority on China studies, published a column in that paper under the headline, “The Coronavirus Spreads, and the World Pays for China’s Dictatorship.”
The subheading said, “Xi Jinping used his powerful control not to stop the infection but to control information,” and it judged that the concealment of information by President Xi’s authoritarian dictatorship was the true cause of the spread of this infectious disease.
The article described in detail the course of events in Wuhan, where coronavirus infections were confirmed in early December of last year and local medical personnel issued warnings, yet the Xi regime concealed that information and punished those medical personnel on suspicion of treason against the state.
It also emphasized the point that even after the Xi regime acknowledged the infectious disease, it falsely reported to the outside world that the infection had been contained only within Wuhan.
Kristof further pointed out the following as Xi’s responsibility.
“The concealment of information had as its background the fact that in recent years Xi had systematically suppressed and deprived of function the very entities indispensable to public information disclosure: journalism, social media, non-governmental organizations（NGOs）, and groups of lawyers.”
As a result, prevention and treatment were impossible, and from within Wuhan, five million people, including infected people, moved to various parts of China and the world.
Michael Auslin, a researcher at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an authority on Asian affairs, also published an essay in the Wall Street Journal titled “From Washington to Wuhan, All Eyes Are on Xi Jinping,” pointing out that the coronavirus infection exposed the weakness of the Chinese Communist Party regime’s dictatorship.
He said that a major cause of the rapid spread of the infectious disease was that “under the Xi system, the Communist Party regime further intensified repression, secrecy, and exclusion.”
On that basis, the essay made the following arguments about this infectious disease and the nature of the Chinese state.
“This incident will expose the weakness of the Chinese Communist Party regime as an example of its prioritizing social control over the lives of its own people, and it will drastically change the world’s image of China.
Concerns in the international community about the safety of living in China and of economic transactions with China will become serious.”
“Within China, due to the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, who first issued a warning about the infectious disease, and other factors, public anger and distrust toward the Communist Party regime, especially contempt for its governing ability, have risen without limit, bringing an unprecedented crisis to the Xi Jinping dictatorship.”
The impropriety of the Japanese government’s plan to invite President Xi, who is the target of such criticism, as a state guest in the near future is surely all too obvious.
Yoshihisa Komori（Guest Correspondent stationed in Washington）