(Minghui.org) The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic on March 11 as the disease has spread to over 100 countries with at least 121,000 infected cases and more than 4,000 deaths.
The majority of these cases were in Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, where many people died at home or in the emergency room before being diagnosed, and where some even dropped dead while walking on the street.
Some Wuhan netizens blogged that it wasn't until the virus broke out that they realized how precious a hospital bed, an oxygen tube, or a ventilator was, as local hospitals were overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. They noted that the disease struck the poor the same as the rich, and that life, not wealth or fame, was the most important in the face of the outbreak.
Several months have passed since the first confirmed case was reported, and many people are reflecting on how the coronavirus could have spread to every province in China and escalated into a pandemic. They wonder what to do to stay safe amid the outbreak.
CCP's Cover-Up Underlies the Quick Spread of Coronavirus
As described in a recent three-month review of the outbreak, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) became aware of human-to-human transmission of the virus back in December 2019, but it didn't take any preventive measures outside of the Chinese military. Several physicians and other whistleblowers were disciplined for talking about the potential outbreak.
According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., Chinese officials arrested at least 325 residents between January 22 and 28 alone. Most of them were charged with “spreading rumors,” “creating panic,” or “attempting to disrupt social order.” They were punished with detention, fines, or disciplinary education.
Fang Bin, a resident of Wuhan, recorded videos related to the coronavirus epidemic and posted them on YouTube on January 25, 2020, two days after the city’s lockdown. On February 1, he took video footage at five hospitals, including one that transferred out 8 corpses in 5 minutes, and again showed it on YouTube. Fang was later arrested, and his whereabouts remain unknown since February 10.
The CCP formed a coronavirus control task force on January 26, 2020, with members selected from the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Public Security. No medical experts from the National Health Commission were invited to join the task force.
The task force issued a policy on its first day of existence, forbidding medical staff from discussing the epidemic at home or in other places through in-person conversations, phone calls, text messages, WeChat posts, Weibo blogs, or emails. The policy applies to all coronavirus-related information, including new cases, treatment plans, control, and prevention. Anyone who violates the policy could be sentenced to 3-7 years in prison.
When Premier Sun Chunlan and other officials inspected a residential area in Wuhan on March 5, a local resident said everything officials could see during the brief inspection tour was “fake.” Officials also arranged people to pretend to deliver food to the residents. “It’s fake, everything’s fake!” shouted one woman furiously from her building. She was soon joined by many others.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago, once wrote, “We know they are lying, they know that they are lying. They know that we know that they are lying, we know that they know that we know that they are lying. Yet they continue to lie.”
Many Chinese citizens have realized that the CCP has been lying all along since its founding and that its cover-up of the outbreak has turned it from an epidemic to a pandemic.
A Contagious Problem
Italy and Iran have become two hotspots outside China, registering about 12,000 and 9,000 infected cases, respectively. A close examination of the two countries' partnership with China indicates that this may not be accidental.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road, was launched in 2013 and aims to expand China's economic and political influence from East Asia to Europe. Many analysts were wary of China's ambition to become a world power and suspect the BRI could be a Trojan horse for China-led regional development and military expansion.
In March 2019, Italy became the first G7 Nation to join China's Belt and Road Initiative. As Rome and Beijing signed a major deal on the BRI, several European leaders raised alarm about the agreement’s ability to divide Europe. But Italy and China have played down such concerns. “There is nothing to worry about,” said Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister to CNBC after a total of 29 deals were signed between the two countries.
Iran is another country that has close ties with China.
“China’s strategic interest in Iran is intensifying. Chinese manufacturers are looking to establish new operations in Iran, and Tehran is viewed as a vital transport and logistics hub,” reported oilprice.com in an article titled “Iran To Become Essential Hub In China’s Belt And Road Initiative.”
“The exact route of the virus is unclear. But Iran’s strategic partnership with Beijing has created a constellation of potential contacts that helped unleash the illness, called Covid-19,” reported the Wall Street Journal on March 11, 2020, in an article titled “Strategic Partnership With China Lies at Root of Iran’s Coronavirus Outbreak.”
Path Forward
The CCP is known for its human rights violations and persecution of religious beliefs, especially Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), a meditation system based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Since July 1999, a large number of Falun Gong practitioners have been detained, imprisoned, and tortured. Some also suffered psychiatric abuse and even became victims of forced organ harvesting.
Many stories have been received by Minghui.org recently in which people improved their health after quitting the CCP organizations and reciting the phrases, “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.”
In one story published on Minghui on February 9, 2020, the author contacted a former classmate in Wuhan on February 2 and learned that he was infected with the coronavirus when he took his wife to a hospital. “He displayed symptoms consistent with the virus, but the hospital had no vacant beds, would not test him for the virus, and only told him to isolate himself at home, where his young child and two elderly parents also lived,” wrote the author.
The classmate had quit the CCP after the author told him about the persecution of Falun Dafa. “I asked if he still remembered the two phrases I had told him to recite when he faced danger. He said he didn’t. I told him to recite, ‘Falun Dafa is good’ and ‘Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good’ and suggested that his family do the same,” the author continued.
When the author contacted his classmate again two days later, the classmate was very excited and said, “All my symptoms were gone when I woke up this morning. My whole body feels refreshed.”
Liu Bowen, a sage in the Ming Dynasty, once described the divine Chinese culture and prophecies in the Taibai Mountain Monument Inscription:
“Heaven has eyes, earth has eyes,and everyone has a pair of eyes;Heaven is looking, earth is looking,[by nature] life is happy and worry-free.”
In other parts of the inscription, he predicted plagues that seem to be highly correlated with the ongoing coronavirus epidemic in terms of time, location, and susceptible population. This is detailed in the article “Wuhan Coronavirus Epidemic’s Connection with Ancient Prophecies.”
In the same inscription, Liu also prescribed an antidote to the plague: “Only those who remain upright can survive,” he wrote. For details, please refer to “Plague Predicted in the Ming Dynasty by Liu Bowen.”
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Category: News Commentary
