Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization team tasked with investigating the origins of COVID-19, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. Thomas Peter/Reuters
In April 2021, something very strange happened. COVID-19 death rates in Ireland, a country I hail from, surpassed death rates in China.
Yes, Ireland, a tiny country with a population of fewer than 5 million people versus China—the world’s most populated country—with more than 1.4 billion citizens.
According to a Johns Hopkins University report, in late April 2021, Ireland had 4,873 COVID-related deaths and close to a quarter of a million confirmed cases. Meanwhile, in China, 4,845 official deaths were reported, with 102,373 cases.
Today, almost a year on from this rather staggering report, China’s “official” (a slippery term, especially when discussing China) death toll has hardly budged. On the other hand, Ireland’s death toll is almost 6,000. How is this possible?
Of course, something is, shall we say, a little off. The people reporting death tolls, such as the scientists working at Johns Hopkins, can only comment on the data provided.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is clearly withholding data. As you will see throughout this piece, this isn’t a controversial point to make. For well over two years, those in Beijing have done all in their power to hide the truth from the world.
Now, though, the cat is very much out of the bag.
In a recent, rather brilliant piece for Forbes, George Calhoun, an academic with a conscience and a considerable amount of bravery, compared the mortality rates from COVID-19 in the United States and China.
Somewhat incredulously, he commented, the CCP “reports a COVID death rate overall of 0.321 per 100,000 population.” Across the pond, meanwhile, “the U.S. COVID death rate is 248 per 100,000 population–800 times higher.”
Why, Calhoun asked, have so many Western media outlets accepted such preposterous figures as valid? Especially when the CCP continues to act in a “triumphalist” manner, boasting about the “success of their ‘zero COVID’ approach—marked by severe lockdowns for entire cities, travel bans, intensive contact tracing, military enforcement.”
Workers in protective suits stand at an entrance to a university's residential area under lockdown, following a COVID-19 outbreak in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China, on Dec. 20, 2021. China Daily via Reuters
China’s COVID success is a farce. The CCP’s “zero COVID” approach carries zero credibility.
The CCP sits on a foundation of lies. Last year, regime leader Xi Jinping called on the Chinese people to rejoice. Severe poverty, he assured the masses, was a thing of the past. Well, it’s not. It’s still very much a thing of the present. Then, in October 2021, the CCP started pushing a pernicious rumor regarding the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to the experts in Beijing, the virus didn’t originate in Wuhan, instead it actually originated in Maine. Yes, Maine, a state in America. Of course, this is nonsense—such nonsense undoubtedly makes many Americans angry, as it should.
But where should this anger be directed? At the CCP, many will shout. Our real anger, I contend, also should be directed at certain news outlets in the West—especially in the United States—that have enabled the perpetuation of false narratives and deceit.
Enabling Beijing
Ever since the virus originated in Wuhan, those in Beijing have gone to great lengths to hide the truth from the world. Sadly, the CCP has been assisted—unknowingly or otherwise—by many commentators in the West, including some of the biggest media outlets in the world.
Instead of focusing on the origins of the virus, some prominent authors instead chose to focus on a former president’s etiquette: How dare he say the “China virus”; what is he thinking?
No, what were they thinking?
It took Jon Stewart, a comedian, to shake millions of Americans out of a collective slumber. Stewart is a funny man but very few people are laughing across the country today. The virus has wreaked absolute chaos. People have lost their homes, their jobs, and their lives. Inflation continues to surge. The United States is struggling. Average Americans are struggling. The only people laughing are members of the CCP. China is in the ascendancy as its economy could overtake the U.S. economy by 2030, according to analysts at the British consultancy Center for Economics and Business Research.
As the United States becomes more divided—with so much of this division stemming from a virus that originated in China—those in Beijing continue to laugh at Americans. They laugh at the current president. They laugh at the state of America. And they laugh at the fact that they may never have to pay a price for arguably the greatest coverup in recent history.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
John Mac Ghlionn
Author
John Mac Ghlionn is a researcher and essayist. He covers psychology and social relations, and has a keen interest in social dysfunction and media manipulation. His work has been published by the New York Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, Newsweek, National Review, and The Spectator US, among others.
