Thread by @JMichaelWaller

2 years ago: Xi Jinping, after public silence about the Wuhan Virus, emerges amid a huge propaganda campaign to portray him as a bold, decisive leader.

The CCP worked at every level for three weeks to devise and implement a policy and propaganda strategy. centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wuhan-virus/

Xinhua carried the story on January 20, 2020, but the link is gone. xinhuanet.com/english/2020-0…

Two years ago: Top Chinese Communist Party officials knew that the Wuhan epidemic was in danger of becoming a global pandemic, but remained publicly silent, AP subsequently reports. xinhuanet.com/english/2020-0…

CCP's authoritative People's Daily outlet, which provides the official party line, mentions the virus for the first time on January 21, 2020. washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/…

January 21, 2020: CCP's "Global Times" carries two stories about what it calls "Wuhan pneumonia," but both are later deleted when Xi Jinping's party line is enforced to shift blame away from Chinese government.

globaltimes.cn/content/117764…
globaltimes.cn/content/117761…

Various Chinese Communist Party outlets called it "Wuhan virus," "Wuhan pneumonia," and "Wuhan coronavirus" until Xi Jinping's Party line came down to draw responsibility away from the CCP. centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wuhan-virus/

Trust the science: 2 years ago, the Washington Post headlined that the World Health Organization's decision to hold off on declaring a "global health emergency" for the "Wuhan coronavirus" because of an "uneasy balancing act between science and politics." washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…

The above Washington Post article referred to "the role of politics" in the World Health Organization's global health decisions, the fact that "politics is always involved" in WHO decisions, that science-based decisions are "unavoidably political, even if framed otherwise."