Xi's Orchestrated Visit to Wuhan

President Xi Jinping paid a visit to Wuhan today

The big news today, other than Italy going into complete lockdown?

Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Hubei province. The city has been under severe lockdown since January 23, two days before the Spring Festival.

【習近平在武漢考察疫情防控工作】今天，習近平深入武漢社區，看望居民群眾和防控一線工作人員。 （視頻：央視新聞） pic.twitter.com/FLUmP37ASF

— 人民日報 People's Daily (@PDChinese) March 10, 2020

 

Donning a mask but no gloves, Xi waved to people quarantined in their apartment blocks -- with security officers in hazmat suits in their flats to make sure they would not shout out negative things to the president, like what happened a few days earlier when local officials walked through and a woman shouted "Fake! Everything is fake!"
    
That video clip went viral on social media.

Security officials hanging out with residents where Xi was

But here Xi praised Hubei and Wuhan for containing the coronavirus and suggested that victory was in sight. And in the meantime he urged continued vigilance and all-out efforts to defeat the epidemic.

He also visited Huashenshan Hospital via video link to frontline health care workers and patients. So while the numbers of new cases have gone done considerably, Xi isn't risking his health quite yet and doing some intense social distancing. Or maybe local officials wanted to show off the grandeur of the ballroom or the technological advances in video links?

Nevertheless, he thanked doctors and nurses for their hard work. "You're radiant emissaries of hope, essentially the most lovely of angels, and true-blue heroes."

The propaganda machines were working overtime today, with state media following Xi's every move, and the message now is: "The Party and all Chinese people are grateful to Wuhan people".

Xi talking to medical staff and patients via video link

This is apparently a 180-degree turn from a few days ago when Wuhan party chief Wang Zhonglin proposed an "extensive gratitude education campaign".

According to Changjiang River Daily, Wang made the suggestion at a meeting about the coronavirus on Friday.

"[We must] be grateful for the general secretary [Xi] and the Communist Party," he said. "[We must] listen to the party, follow the party."

People online were outraged that Wang expected people to be grateful, as they had paid a heavy price for the complete lockdown of the city.

The red circles show where security officers were positioned

"The government should put an end to its arrogance and humbly express gratitude to its master -- millions of people in Wuhan," wrote Fang Fang, a Wuhan-based writer, in an article posted on WeChat.

One piece of silver lining in Xi's visit was that the stock market reacted positively -- the Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.8 percent, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was up 1.4 percent.

Nonetheless, it seems not everyone was buoyed by Xi's Wuhan trip. On WeChat some users mocked his visit by sharing a video of a scene from a TV drama about Qing emperor Kangxi, where courtiers advised the emperor he should only personally lead troops into battle when final victory is all but assured...