Wuhan Beat the Virus. Now It’s Moving on by Shutting Out the World. The city has become a template for the new China, where controlling the narrative is as important as controlling Covid-19. “It’s past 12 on a hot summer’s night in Wuhan, and hundreds of college-age kids are packed into a nightclub called Hepburn, dancing to a mix of Chinese-language Mandopop and American rap. At one point the DJ spins an electronic remix of “My Name Is,” the 1999 hit by Eminem, and the crowd goes wild. Many of the partiers toss fake U.S. $100 bills in the air—even in the age of Donald Trump and the pandemic, American soft power is a potent force—mimicking scenes from music videos. The club has posted signs urging people to wear masks and keep their distance from one another, but few are doing either. No one sees the need. Wuhan has had just four confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus since May, when the city tested its entire population in the space of two weeks. (All four had traveled from overseas, and were immediately quarantined.) Now, “Wuhan is the safest place in China,” says Hepburn’s deputy general manager, Thomas Tong.” “More than eight months after Covid-19 emerged in the industrial hub of 11 million, Wuhan is, perhaps more emphatically than anywhere else, moving into a post-virus future. As the club kids at Hepburn can attest, social life has resumed in all its varieties, with lineups at popular breakfast joints and cinemas and karaoke lounges open for business. Factories and offices are operating normally, although China’s vast surveillance state, partly re-tasked to monitoring public health, has a long reach. A national-ID number is required to purchase fever medicine, and anyone with a high temperature is theoretically required to report it to the authorities. Nightspots aside, people generally wear masks in public, and a system of check-ins has been implemented at most buildings, allowing rapid contact tracing should a case be detected.” “...the city is becoming something like a template for the new China, a place with relative economic freedom but intense controls on speech, socially vibrant but isolated from and suspicious of outsiders. Publicly questioning how the government handled the virus is almost impossible, since that would weaken the central rhetorical foundation of Xi’s expanding power: that China’s mighty state conquered a disease that left the U.S., with its raucous democracy and competing centers of power, on its knees. Controlling the narrative, in other words, is just as important as controlling Covid-19.”

>"For China, controlling the narrative — that it conquered a disease that left the U.S. on its knees — is just as important as controlling Covid-19."

For China, controlling the narrative — that it conquered a disease that left the U.S. on its knees — is just as important as controlling Covid-19.

China needs stronger nationalism to insulate Xi and his confederates from blame, both domestically and internationally,” said Ian Bremmer, the founder of Eurasia Group, a New York-based political consultancy. In order to promote “confidence that the Chinese model is the correct one,” Bremmer said, the government wants “as much control of the information cycle as possible.”

The city has become a template for the new China, where controlling the narrative is as important as controlling Covid-19. By Bloomberg News 26 August 2020, 02:30

Now, not only wuhan but whole China is out of the danger from virus. But they don't say world that how it's become possible. I think China played a game with the world. No one knows that what China did? But it will reveal one day to whole world. And I pray to God that one day china will regret for whatever it's done.

That task is only getting easier thanks to the Trump Administration, which has made vilifying China its foreign-policy priority in the runup to November’s presidential election. From referring to Covid-19 as the “China virus” to signing an executive order that would effectively ban the popular WeChat and TikTok apps in the U.S.,

An official at the foreign affairs office of Wuhan city, Deng Wei, said there were no rules preventing companies or residents from communicating with foreign journalists. But the political atmosphere in China, and the deteriorating relationship with the US, may have reached the point where no formal policy is needed. In April, the Communist Party set up a task force of a law enforcement apparatus to "defend political security" and "resolve conflicts over the coronavirus outbreak." Even academic papers on Covid-19 are subject to intense government scrutiny. Meanwhile, the government has taken control of the story of Li Wenliang - the Wuhan doctor who was reprimanded by police when he tried to warn his colleagues that a new pathogen was circulating, and later died from the virus - framing him as a fallen patriot rather than a mummified whistleblower. To the extent that Wuhan residents are willing to discuss the pandemic with visiting journalists, in large part to praise the government's response - and express surprise that the US, so accustomed to admire by many of them, has mishandled it so terribly. More than a dozen residents told Bloomberg News they believe the 11-week quarantine in Wuhan, which started on January 23, was the right decision, and continued monitoring is important. "The government needs to locate everyone to ensure full containment of the virus," said a teahouse owner who asked to be identified only by his last name, Hua. "The Chinese government treats its citizens like children by taking good care of them."

China needs stronger nationalism to insulate Xi and his confederates from blame, both domestically and internationally” During another visit at the end of July, after a period of intensified U.S.-China tensions that included Trump ordering the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, claiming it was a center for espionage, the mood had shifted. A resident who’d previously criticized the Chinese government’s management of the virus abruptly canceled a meeting, citing a fear of surveillance. Some companies that had agreed to interviews also backed out, while others said any discussions with reporters for a U.S.-based media organization would have to be arranged through the municipal propaganda department.

More than eight months after Covid-19 emerged in the industrial hub of 11 million, Wuhan is, perhaps more emphatically than anywhere else, moving into a post-virus future. As the club kids at Hepburn can attest, social life has resumed in all its varieties, with lineups at popular breakfast joints and cinemas and karaoke lounges open for business. Factories and offices are operating normally, although China’s vast surveillance state, partly re-tasked to monitoring public health, has a long reach.

This is a massive win for China.... beating a disease that held the world standstill is a very big one

virus is nothing is like a cold

>"For China, controlling the narrative — that it conquered a disease that left the U.S. on its knees — is just as important as controlling Covid-19."

wuhan beat the Virus

For China, controlling the narrative — that it conquered a disease that left the U.S. on its knees — is just as important as controlling Covid-19.

Wuhan Beat the Virus. Now the Chinese City Is Shutting Out the World

China’s Wuhan says all schools to reopen on Tuesday