I don't understand why Russia is closing the border, when the latest official statistics say little more than 2000 people have died, which is nothing to what a usual cold or influenza season causes.
From the
Chinese source which I have quoted before I have attached an image of the present official statistics.
Perhaps Russia does not say too much out of respect for China, and China does not say much either. From what I have been able to pick up, those who try to say something that is not official get in trouble which may be justified, as they may be working for other interests, or not justified because what they say is true, but even then it would not necessarily be justified from the perspective of the leadership of the China, which is the Communist Party of China. In this post I explore why that might be so.
I already mentioned that
Xi Jinping advised people to read the Communist Manifesto which I did, and after that I read the
Constitution of the Communist Party of China. In the first pages it lays out the general programme followed by a series of articles grouped into different chapters.
In this document including the above excerpt, there are terms that are only partially explained, as they are explained in other documents. One of these terms found in the above excerpt is "the socialist concept of honor and disgrace" which happens to be an expression that covers a set of guidelines for how to behave:
The eight points are:
The concept is also mentioned but a little different on a
site that teaches Chinese.
I highlighted a couple of those that might be of relevance in this situation, without getting too occupied with laws, (that we can find) or speculate about those we can't find like directives and regulations in general as well as those applicable in a situation like now, where even military measures are taken.
If one takes the above two highlighted points and consider that this event most likely was not planned for, and that it somewhat jeopardizes the economic goals set out for the year, as well as the reputation of the Party, then it is understandable that China would do what it can to reduce to a minimum the information coming out that is not under their control.
I would not suggest such a policy is only possible in China. In France for instance the Western medias have been very silent about the Yellow Vests protests. They have been very silent about the cases of injuries, but have turned their camera teams in other directions where it was more politically profitable.
Another excerpt from the Programme that might shine a light on the situation is from the beginning:
The above paragraph is full of capitalized concepts, each of which have been developed in the literature that forms the ideological basis of the Communist Party. One example is Mao Zedong Thought, which covers the writings and theories formulated by Mao Zedong, who led the Communist Revolution to victory in 1949. Among his writings there is a condensed version:
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung: The Little Red Book which was out of favour for some time, but has enjoyed a comeback according to an article in The Guardian from 2013 which informs us it has now been re-issued as an app.
In this book of less than 150 pages issued in 1966, one finds numerous points that could help explain the reaction of the official China in the current situation and also the meaning of some of the terms in the programme of the Communist party.
In the introduction signed by Lin Piao, at one time a right hand of Mao and later after a mysterious plane crash deemed a traitor, one finds:
In the first section of the book one finds:
In the Programme of the Communist Party there is a term called contradictions which is explained in Chapter four of the The Little Red:
In the above one may wonder about "contradictions between us and enemies" but here The Little Red is more clear:
In the programme, there is a whole list of articles contained in two chapters; Party Discipline and Party Organs for Discipline Inspection that details what kind of discipline is expected and how it is maintained. All in all, what happens in China, is not necessarily reported.
It may be that the theme of the ideology of the Communist Party of China is worthy of a thread on its own, because in the great picture there have been and will be other issues than this Coronavirus. Besides if 1,5 billion people subscribe to this ideology whether ardently or as a matter of culture, might a more detailed study help to understand China better? For the time being, I will read a few more pages of The Little Red, allegedly the most printed book next after the Bible.