Chinese top leader holds unprecedented meeting on epidemic control work
By Global
Times reporters
Top
Chinese leaders held an unprecedented mass meeting on Sunday, February 23. Officials
top down from political Bureau of CPC Central Committee to county-level Party
officials and military officials of corresponding level attended the meeting
via videophone.
President
Xi Jinping arranged and coordinated epidemic prevention and social and economic
development during the meeting.
Some
170,000 officials took part in the meeting, attendees said.
Analysts
said such a massive, top-down official Party meeting was unusual, underscoring
its great significance.
Xi
stressed that the Chinese nation has experienced many ordeals in history, but
has never been crushed. Instead, China has become more and more courageous, and
has continued to grow and rise from ordeals.
The
current epidemic situation is still grim and complex, and prevention and
control work is at the most critical stage, he noted.
Party
committees and governments at all levels must hold firm to their belief in
victory, continuing working on various prevention and control tasks, Xi said.
Xi also
called for mobilizing the whole of society to participate in virus containment
work.
The
shortcomings exposed in the epidemic-response work should be taken as lessons
for the future, Xi noted, and should be drawn upon to help improve the country’s
ability to cope with public health emergency.
The
president urged pressure be turned into motivation and crisis into opportunity
towards an orderly restoration of production and order of people’s life.
Besides
epidemic and control work, Xi remarked on social and development issues
including ensuring agricultural activities and the stabilization of trade and
foreign investment, as well as expanding opening up of financial service sector
as part of reform and opening-up efforts.
Great significance
This was
truly a historic and remarkable event of political governance not only for
China but also for the world, said Lu Keli, associate professor of the school
of Marxism studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing.
There
has never been a country or political party with the capability and motivation
to hold such a massive meeting to discuss and deliver instructions from the top
leader to more than 170,000 officials, Lu said.
“This
showed that the CPC holds a unique advantage to mobilize a great country with
1.4 billion people to counter the massive emergency,” Lu said, noting that is a
giant Party with powerful leadership that also has its branches to reach every
corner of the country.
“It also
shows that the CPC is very clear that its top priority and duty is to protect
Chinese people’s health and safety,” the expert said.
As of
Sunday, China reported 76,936 infections in total, with 4,148 suspected cases.
Some 21
regions outside Hubei reported zero new cases on Sunday while all provinces and
municipalities outside Hubei have 18 new infections in total, official data
showed.
A Party
secretary of a county in Central China’s Hubei Province who also attended the
meeting, told the Global Times Sunday night that he was highly motivated by Xi’s
speech that boosted his confidence in fighting the epidemic.
“President
Xi understands very well the frontline situation, which is also impressive,” he
said. The official asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the
matter.
Chinese
analysts noted the video channel targeted county-level government: the country’s
grass-roots level of governance.
The
grass-roots level of government is directly linked to people’s life, work and
production, while the execution of central government’s policies and
instructions is carried out by the grass-roots governments, the analysts said.
County-level
government largely manages village affairs, which is the weakest and most
important section of the battle against the virus spreading, said Wang Hongwei,
a professor at Renmin University’s school of public administration and policy.
If both
virus containment and the work of resuming economic and social development can’t
be handled properly in rural areas, Wang said, previous efforts to realize the
goal of completely eradicating poverty by the end of this year would be wasted.
Importance of grass-root work
Rural
areas have seen an improving situation in combating the coronavirus, Zeng
Guang, chief epidemiologist of the China Center for Disease Control and
Prevention in Beijing, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Most
villages have reported zero new infections in recent days, reflecting visible
progress in COVID-19 prevention and control work, Zeng said.
The
epidemic has spread mainly in urban areas, with fewer cases reported in
villages and counties across the country, he said.
However,
caution should be retained in prevention and control in those areas due to a
lack of health awareness and medical resources, Zeng noted.
Infection
clusters in some rural areas showed that villagers have not fully taken the
deadly virus into account, Zeng believed.
Some had
attended family reunions or had meals with their relatives and it required more
efforts by local authorities to educate residents on the importance of
prevention and control.
Identification
and confirmation of infection cases should be conducted “as early as possible,”
he said, especially in rural areas.
The
World Health Organization (WHO) “highly appreciates the tremendous efforts
China has made to contain the epidemic,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying in a report on February 16.
Ghebreyesus
noted that China protects not only its own people but also people from other
countries in the world, and WHO will continue to uphold the truth, adhere to
the principles, stand firmly with China and provide all possible help, the
report said.
Chinese
analysts said the unprecedented meeting showed China’s great capacity for
social mobilization, with the central government paying great attention not
only to its own people but also to the international community amid the
outbreak, now a global challenge.
Source:Global Times
Photo: screengrabs
Chinese top leader holds unprecedented meeting on epidemic control work
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