Based on journalist Kaori Fukushima’s analysis, this article examines the CCP’s “positive energy reporting” and Xi Jinping’s grand propaganda during the Wuhan pneumonia crisis. From the forced spectacle of female nurses shaving their heads to the People’s Daily’s massive opinion-guidance campaign and Wuhan citizens’ life-risking cries of “lies,” it exposes a regime built on bottomless evil and plausible lies.

April 3, 2020
The astonishing manner in which Xi Jinping is now behaving proves that this is a regime built upon “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies.”
The following is from an article by Kaori Fukushima, titled “Xi Jinping’s Grand Propaganda: ‘The Virus Was Brought to Wuhan by the U.S. Military,’” published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Hanada, in the special feature “Wuhan Pneumonia: Japan Will Not Be Defeated!”
This is a magazine that must be read not only by the Japanese people, but by people all over the world.
She graduated from Osaka University, joined the Sankei Shimbun, studied at Fudan University, was stationed in Beijing, and is now active as a journalist.
She is one of the world’s foremost experts on China.
Women consumed by political propaganda
Young female nurses have their black hair mercilessly shaved off with clippers.
Half of their faces are covered by masks, but tears are shining around their eyes.
“Hair will grow back again. We will all face forward. We will definitely return safely,” they say bravely, holding back sobs.
When I saw this video on the internet, I too found myself quietly moved to tears.
This was a news video that circulated on the internet inside and outside China around February 17.
Fourteen female nurses from the Gansu Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital, who were being sent to the front line of medical care in Wuhan, shaved their heads “for the sake of hygiene.”
Chinese media outlets reported this as a “heartwarming story.”
They emotionally reported the self-sacrifice of these women, who swallowed their tears and had their hair shaved off in order to go to a life-threatening medical front line, and praised them with words such as “the most beautiful reverse marchers,” meaning, in this case, those who move toward danger.
But any ordinary person would feel something wrong about this report.
The reason I found myself moved to tears was not because I sympathized with the propaganda.
It was because I could not help feeling pity for these women, who were being consumed by political propaganda.
It was painful enough simply to be sent into a harsh infectious-disease front line where medical collapse had already been reported.
Yet for the sake of China’s grand propaganda, they had to perform the unnecessary spectacle of shaving their long hair, and had to fully play the role of heroines in a beautiful story.
How cruel this is.
Behind the “grand propaganda” that Xi Jinping is deploying in order to escape responsibility for the political cover-up and inaction that caused the spread of infection, there lay countless sacrifices like these women.
On February 5, the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee selected 300 journalists and sent them to Hubei Province and Wuhan to cover the front line.
From that day onward, “positive energy reporting” and “positive information” were rolled out on a massive scale in the Chinese media.
The Chinese phrase “positive energy” might be translated as positive power or positive energy.
It carries the nuance of stirring courage, giving emotion, injecting energy, uniting the people, or giving them optimistic hope.
“Positive information” is similar.
It means positive news, information that is optimistic and worthy of praise.
In other words, it means: do not report anything negative, pessimistic, or critical of the authorities.
＊This is precisely the passage that Japanese media such as the Asahi Shimbun should boil down and drink as medicine＊
Actively distributing “beautiful stories”
The People’s Daily, on March 6, reported without the slightest embarrassment as follows.
“The People’s Daily has deeply and thoroughly studied General Secretary Xi Jinping’s speeches and has devoted all its strength to propaganda reporting and public-opinion guidance work on infection prevention and control under the leadership of the Party Central Committee. By March 5, reports on infection prevention and control had reached 384 pages and 1,942 articles, while 140,000 reports and videos had been produced across all media, with total views and broadcasts exceeding 34.5 billion.”
“Commentary was also strengthened, social concerns were reflected, and public opinion was strongly guided. By March 5, the People’s Daily editorial board had published one article every day, including 38 articles such as ‘The People’s War to Win the Battle of Infection Prevention and Control,’ and summaries of these were also broadcast every day on CCTV’s regular news programs. Through more than 30 editorials, courage in the fight against the infection was encouraged, and confidence in certain victory was made firm.”
“International reporting was also strengthened, and confidence that China would surely win was spread externally as well. By March 5, the overseas edition of the People’s Daily had reported 42 related articles on its front page. These were translated into 10 languages, including English, French, and Russian, totaling 440 pieces, and were carried 2,500 times by 227 media outlets in more than 60 countries. In the ‘Harmony’ series of commentaries, it explained that the fight against the infection could not be separated from the consciousness of the ‘community of shared future for mankind,’ Xi Jinping’s slogan. It also published 15 commentaries such as ‘Life First, Great-Power Responsibility,’ which were translated into multiple languages including English, French, and Arabic, and were taken up 150 times by more than 30 mainstream media outlets in 20 countries.”
The “positive energy reporting” that backfired
As the People’s Daily proudly reported in this way, from February 5 onward, China’s mainstream media simply continued to deploy grand propaganda designed to encourage the fight against the infection and bring the Chinese people and the international community confidence in China’s certain victory.
As a result, in addition to the fourteen “most beautiful reverse marchers,” the Chinese media successively reported the following “beautiful stories” and “heroic tales.”
“Ten days after a miscarriage, a post-90s female nurse returns to the front line” — Wuhan Evening News.
“A female nurse nine months pregnant wears protective clothing and remains on the front line of infectious-disease medical care” — Changjiang Daily.
“An 87-year-old man donates all of his 200,000 yuan in savings accumulated over 30 years to the front line of infection prevention” — Xinhua News Agency.
“Hubei nurse leaves behind her husband in a vegetative state and resolutely goes to the front line of the infection site. Mother: I support you!” — Guizhou Television.
“Even a baby less than 20 days old volunteers for the front line of the anti-epidemic battle” — Huashang Daily.
I thought the last news item, “even a baby volunteers for the fight against the infection,” must be some kind of joke.
But apparently this too was serious “positive energy reporting.”
However, ordinary Chinese people were not so simple as to be honestly deceived by such “positive energy reporting.”
A certain psychosomatic physician wrote a critical comment on his blog, saying, “Everyone, we do not need this kind of emotion. Think calmly. You will notice what is wrong.”
“Is it because anti-human behavior easily stimulates the nerves of the masses?”
“If a poor old man donates all of his property for the infection, who will guarantee his own old age?”
“Who is being encouraged by a nurse returning to the front line ten days after a miscarriage?”
“Was there no one to persuade a woman nine months pregnant not to go to an infection site?”
The criticism was fierce.
Regarding the news of the Gansu female nurses shaving their heads, there were also criticisms such as: “Are these nurses really volunteering?” “Isn’t the question of whether to shave one’s hair a matter of basic human rights?” “If one cannot provide nursing care without shaving one’s hair, does that not mean the medical facility itself fails to meet hygiene standards?” “This is precisely formalism!”
Faced with such criticism, the media outlet that had published the article hurriedly deleted it.
In other words, positive energy reporting produced the opposite effect from what the authorities had intended.
It instead triggered anger toward the Communist Party.
Life-risking shouts of abuse
The incident that made this unmistakably clear was probably the March 5 inspection visit to Wuhan by Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, followed by the backlash against the “gratitude education” proposed by Wang Zhonglin, secretary of Wuhan.
On the afternoon of March 5, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, representing the central leadership team, inspected a residential district in Wuhan, the Cuiyuan Community in Qingshan District.
At that moment, from the windows of an apartment building, shouts of abuse flew toward Sun Chunlan.
“Lies! Lies! Everything is lies!”
“We are being forced to buy expensive vegetables!”
“Formalism!”
In this community, it seems that volunteers had been made to “pretend” to deliver vegetables and meat to apartment managers, fabricating a “positive energy report” in the form of a beautiful story of mutual aid.
Of course, this was probably under instructions from the upper levels, most likely at the municipal-government level.
That is why the residents appealed directly to the central leader, saying, “Positive energy reporting is fake news. We are being forced to buy expensive vegetables.”
Video of this scene circulated on the internet.
It was probably filmed by a local resident with a smartphone from the window of one apartment room.
In China, under one-party dictatorial authoritarian rule, it is extremely, extremely rare for ordinary citizens to directly hurl abuse at senior officials of the Party Central Committee or members of the leadership.
It is an act that risks one’s life.
In China, merely criticizing or mocking Xi Jinping anonymously on the internet can lead to arrest.
Even when people are not prosecuted, there are many cases in which they are confined under the name of “psychiatric treatment,” injected with strange drugs, and by the time they return home, they have become broken people.
One recent case that comes to mind is that of Dong Yaoqiong, who threw ink on a poster of Xi Jinping in July 2018.
Immediately afterward, she was arrested, and by the time she was released a year later, she had reportedly become a demented, broken person.
The residents of this community understood such political risks and still hurled abuse at Sun Chunlan and her party.
This can only mean that the citizens of Wuhan were suffering to such a degree, were driven into such a corner, and held such anger toward the Chinese Communist Party Central Government and the Wuhan municipal government.
This article continues.