Beijing: Mounting a strong defence of the ruling Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping has said the COVID-19 fight has once again shown that the CPC leadership and the country’s socialist political system can overcome any challenge.
Xi’s comments came as China faced global criticism for its initial inaction to act against the novel coronavirus, which according to Chinese officials emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year.
Pressure is also mounting on Beijing to agree for an international probe on the origins of the vicious virus, including from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), as claimed by the US leadership.
China curbed the spread of the coronavirus in over a month and brought COVID-19 under control at its first epicentre in Wuhan in about three months, Xi, also the General Secretary of the CPC, said at a symposium held on Friday to get suggestions from non-ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) parties on COVID-19 prevention and control.
He termed the curbing of the COVID-19 pandemic as “hard-won achievements” for the world’s most populous country and the second-biggest economy.
The COVID-19 fight has once again shown that the CPC leadership, China’s socialist system and its governance system can overcome any challenge and make big contributions to the progress of human civilisation, he said.
Xi said China had basically curbed the spread of the virus in over one month, managed to bring the daily number of new domestically-transmitted cases down to single digits in about two months, and secured decisive achievements in protecting epicentres Wuhan and Hubei province in about three months.
“For a huge country with 1.4 billion people, these are hard-won achievements,” he said
Besides the top CPC officials, the symposium was attended by members of the central committees of non-CPC parties in China, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and persons without party affiliation.
The speakers at the symposium praised the Chinese leadership in handling the crisis, saying it fully demonstrated the political advantage of China’s socialist system and showed that China was a major responsible country.
Xi, who is also the head of the People’s Liberation Army, praised China’s one-party political system governed by the CPC.
His comments on the country’s political system came as Beijing is also defending the role of the CPC as US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have blamed the ruling party for not being transparent in the fight against the pandemic.
Both Trump and Pompeo have been pressing Beijing to allow American experts for a probe on whether the virus emerged from the WIV, China’s premier research lab where viruses of different types are reportedly researched.
At the symposium attended by the top CPC officials, Xi’s leadership came for praise for successfully handling the situation, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
“Attendees noted the major strategic achievements in the COVID-19 fight under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core,” the report said.
The meeting was held amid reports of murmurs of internal criticism within the CPC about Xi’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
China reports 15 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases
Beijing: China has reported 15 new asymptomatic coronavirus cases, taking their total to 836 while one new imported COVID-19 infection was confirmed, health officials said on Saturday.
According to China’s National Health Commission (NHC), as for Friday 836 asymptomatic cases, including 63 from overseas, were still under medical observation.
The NHC said one imported case of coronavirus was reported on Friday and 15 new asymptomatic cases, all domestic ones, were confirmed in the country.
Most of the asymptomatic cases were being reported from first coronavirus epicentres Hubei province and its capital Wuhan where no confirmed cases were reported for the 35 days, the local health commission said.
Normalcy is returning to the province as the lockdown has been lifted and offices, business and factories have been opened since last month.
The province still has 628 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, after 13 new cases were reported on Friday, the commission said.
Death toll in China remained at 4,633 as no new fatalities have been reported on Friday while the total number of cases stood at 82,887, including 208 patients who were still being treated, the NHC said.
