Covid 19 coronavirus: China exits pandemic ‘absolutely laughing’

An Australian journalist who fled China says the difference between what you hear about Covid-19 there and elsewhere is unfathomable.

A journalist who was recently forced to flee China on the advice of the Australian government says the country came out of Covid-19 “absolutely laughing.”

Bill Birtles, who was an ABC China correspondent in Beijing from 2015 until a few weeks ago, said it was a “parallel world” between what was heard about Covid-19 there compared to elsewhere.

“It’s almost unfathomably different,” he told a Lowy Institute webinar on Australia’s fractured ties with China.

“Everyone has moved on from the whole Wuhan thing in China … the coverage has been molded … into a party-controlled narrative.

“On the ground, China has absolutely crushed Covid.”

Birtles said the government had almost eliminated domestic transmission among a population of 1.4 billion people, compared to countries like India, the United States and Brazil, which was an “extraordinary achievement.”

He said the United States also gave China a “gift” with its terrible handling of the virus, which had been “absolutely exploited for all political gain at the national level” in China through state media.

“People who say ‘maybe this is China’s Chernobyl’ or something like that really underestimate the many levers of political control, control of the media and control of information that the party now has.

“I can’t imagine a stronger position for the party, except, of course, for the US trade war.

“But certainly at Covid, they’ve absolutely come out laughing.”

Michael Smith, who was the China correspondent for the Shanghai-based Australian Financial Review from 2018 until he too was expelled, described the pair’s recent experience as “pawns in a larger game.”

“I am quite disappointed to leave as we did. It feels like a real shame for journalism,” he said.

“Obviously it’s going to be difficult to go back there for a while.”

Birtles said his impression was that it was a tit-for-tat diplomatic affair that was not personally related to them.