The spread of the Wuhan virus revealed China’s economic collapse, information control, the absence of the PLA at the front line, ethnic oppression, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. What Xi Jinping fears most is not the epidemic itself, but the anger of the Chinese people.

2020-03-07
Even statistics said to be the most reliable are difficult to believe completely.
The Chinese nation remains, to the very end, endlessly flexible and expedient.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The people’s anger toward the government
Even statistics said to be the most reliable are difficult to believe completely.
The Chinese nation remains, to the very end, endlessly flexible and expedient.
Yet now, China’s economy is falling so sharply that it can no longer be concealed.
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on March 1 that the manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, or PMI, said to be the most reliable of economic indicators, stood at 35.7 in February, far below the market forecast of 46.
This is more serious than the Lehman crisis.
In this emergency, the Xi Jinping regime is moving toward even harsher measures of repression, both in controlling information and in controlling the people, in order to maintain state order and protect its own political foundation.
This time, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the PLA, is nowhere to be seen on the front line of eradicating the Wuhan virus.
This is in stark contrast to earthquakes and other disasters, when the PLA has been swiftly deployed and loudly advertised as an army serving the people.
Does this not reflect Xi’s decision to abandon Hubei Province and preserve the military in order to defend Beijing?
China’s successive dynasties, including the Ming and Qing, collapsed with epidemics such as plague as one of their triggers.
Xi knows the fear of the people’s anger toward the government if the epidemic cannot be contained, and the revolution and regime change that may follow.
What he fears most is the anger of the people, and he must see this Wuhan virus as the greatest crisis since the founding of the People’s Republic.
China is, in fact, facing its greatest crisis since its founding in 1949.
With the economy worsening for several years, President Trump launched a trade war against China, and the economy has continued to decline further.
Regarding ethnic issues, including the Uyghurs, the reality of inhumane repression has become known to the international community, astonishingly, through whistleblowing from within the Chinese Communist Party itself.
The Uyghur issue led to the Hong Kong issue, and further brought a landslide victory in Taiwan to Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party.
The Chinese Communist Party has suffered a deep wound and is writhing in pain.
The confrontation between the United States and China will continue.
What Japan must do is restrain any movement to Sinicize the international community, based on the values shared by Japan, the United States, and many other countries.
As Japan initially showed in its response to the Wuhan virus, we must never again allow ourselves to be misled by information from China.