1.1/ China's empathy with #Italy is political hypocrisy since the face mask diplomacy is just part of China's Overseas Propaganda campaign, which includes rewriting history, obscuring the source of the virus, painting China as a global hero by delivering medical aids abroad.
1.2/ More importantly, praising the superiority of China over the western liberal democracies. This narrative is tightly connected to President Xi Jinping's personality cult, as his authority has been deeply challenged since the outbreak.
1.3/ To retain his reputation and erase China's bad image, state-run media in China have been projecting China as the global hero with extreme nationalist colour in the past few weeks. Therefore, helping Italy is just part of a bigger plan.
2.1/ As mask manufacturers described to reporters, the mask machine is now a real cash printer. In the first months, nearly 9000 new manufacturers set foot in mask production. Some are garment factory owners.
2.2/ It proves that sending masks is not an act of generosity, but a way to ease its economic pressure, since China's export-oriented manufacturing industry is still heavily hit by the economy. Chinese factory owners rely on mask exports to survive.
2.3/ However, masks or healthcare production is not an ordinary industry. It is a matter of life and death. Most of the Chinese masks or other medical kits are gradually found substandard or counterfeited.
2.4/ Czech, Dutch, Spanish and Turkish governments have found the China-made masks and test kits fail to meet safety standards. In other words, those Chinese mask manufacturers are now earning money at the expense of others' safety.
3.1/ The number of confirmed cases should be higher than Italy since Beijing have tried every means to keep the number of confirmed cases low. Chinese hospitals now deny new admission of new patients and refuse to give virus test in order to achieve a zero case day.
3.2/ Patients are forced to terminate their treatment and leave hospitals to boost the recovery rate. Also, 43000 asymptomatic cases, half of the disclosed figures, were excluded from the confirmed tally, according to a classified Chinese government data seen by SCMP.
3.3/ They are silent carriers, as contagious as those with symptoms. Not to mention that Chinese social media like WeChat broadly censored coronavirus related content, including critical and neutral information, while local media are under pressure to report positive news merely.
3.4/ Just as some Wuhan people described to reporters, the whole thing is "political treatment", not medical. When the first wave of infection started with China's detention of whistleblower doctors for telling the truth, the recent censorship will probably lead to another wave.
4.1/ When the world is busy containing coronavirus, Beijing keeps sinking its claws over the city. Beijing has been calling for speeding up the passage of controversial national security law in Hong Kong.
4.2/ A hardliner, who was notorious for the demolition of Christian crosses, was installed as the new head of China's office in the city. Just when the city's budget on police was scaled up for future's crackdown on dissents, the Chinese troops were quietly doubled.
4.3/ As the coronavirus now hits the city, people now focus more on finding masks and delivering them to some underprivileged sectors, like elderly and street cleaners. Once the situation of the outbreak becomes stable, people will strike back.
4.4/ Nevertheless, the coronavirus does not kill the movement, but rather adds more fuels to the public anger. According to Reuters' poll, support for protesters has grown even though rallies pause. More people demand our city leader to step down, from 57% in Dec to 63% in March.
