Name: How coronavirus puts pressure on China l FT
Uploaded: 2020-03-07T16:33:45.000Z
Duration: 3 min 2 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The official death toll from the outbreak of coronavirus

So far, this has mostly been directed at officials in Wuhan,

Their shortcomings in dealing with the virus

of the city, who confessed this week that authorities

In fact, it took six weeks since the first reported case

The delay has prompted several thousands of angry people

Such outbursts of public dissent are rare in China,

particularly during the rule of Xi Jinping,

of disunity among the different levels of the Communist party

But this is exactly what's happening this time.

Even as the mayor of Wuhan offered to resign and face

he also laid responsibility for the slow reaction

to the virus at the door of the central government.

why Wuhan had failed to make timely disclosures

that the city had to wait for authorisation

The Sars outbreak of 2003, which eventually

killed some 800 people in 17 countries around the world.

That crisis was also worsened by cover-ups and underreporting

The fallout from Sars rocked the Chinese government,

and resulted in the firing of the minister of health

The current signs of disunity within Chinese officialdom

hint at the intense pressures that arise during public health

As food prices surge, factories shut or go slow,

and cities all over the country restrict the movement

of people, there is no doubt that the coronavirus outbreak

ranks as the biggest crisis that Mr Xi has had to face

Subtitles ListPlay Video

How coronavirus puts pressure on China l FT

intense

eventually

crisis

general