BY: CLAIRE KIM
China, known to be America’s top competitor in the global forefront of economics and innovation, has lost a considerable amount of respect for its flawed reporting of the recent coronavirus epidemic.
In discovering that multiple cases of the coronavirus were already present before the epidemic spread across the world, China, more specifically the Chinese government has grown of major concern. Such delayed awareness of the coronavirus has not only triggered a greater number of cases around the world but also exposed the flaws of the Chinese government in securing basic public safety. The New York Times reports that this unreported case falls in line with several other Chinese controversies in the past as well, leading some to believe that such delay may be intentional. In short, the Chinese government may be severely more corrupted than we thought.
According to the New York Times, China’s silence on the coronavirus issue may extend deeper into the problem of the Chinese system as a whole. Further, they state that “Its rigidly hierarchical bureaucracy discourages local officials from raising bad news with central bosses whose help they might need. And it silos those officials off from one another, making it harder to see, much less manage, the full scope of spiraling crises”.
Personally, I wasn’t shocked to hear about China’s corrupted media coverage. As an avid follower of Korean politics, I’ve noticed this tendency among several national governments: putting aside public issues in hopes of maintaining a facade. It’s become a norm for large news enterprises to announce reports flawed with missing details and important names.
claire kim. 