Chinese Netizens Criticize Authorities' Self-Praise on COVID-19 Measures, Asking "Aren't You Embarrassed?"

In the Absence of Official Infection Statistics Announcement,
Chinese State Council Leader: "No Severe Deaths Occurred"
Netizens: "Situation Worsened Since Transition to With Corona"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] As China faces a sharp surge in COVID-19 cases ahead of the abolition of its zero-COVID policy, key health officials and government-affiliated experts have been harshly criticized by netizens for boasting about their 'pandemic control performance.'

At a State Council joint epidemic prevention press conference on the 27th, Li Bin, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission (NHC), stated, "The number of deaths due to COVID-19 infections and outbreaks in our country remains among the lowest in the world."

According to Chinese media such as Jiemian News, Liang Wannian, head of the NHC's COVID-19 response expert team and a professor at Tsinghua University, also claimed, "In some regions, the first wave of infections has passed or is passing its peak, and the feared situation of widespread severe cases and deaths over large areas has not occurred."

However, with the Chinese government having recently stopped releasing daily official infection statistics, these remarks have been met with sharp criticism from Chinese netizens. While the infection and death rates during the period of strict zero-COVID policies were clearly lower compared to other countries, netizens perceive that the officials' and experts' statements do not accurately reflect the situation following the sudden shift to a 'with-COVID' policy.

On social media platform Weibo, comments on these remarks included, "Aren't you ashamed?", "Good at self-praise," and "How are the death numbers being counted? Have any figures been publicly released?"

Additionally, comments on the article featuring Professor Liang's claims questioned what criteria define 'large areas with severe deaths,' with remarks such as "How large does an area have to be to be considered large?" and "China has a high population density, so many people live even in small areas."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.