Madness of US not considered madness by those who fail to recognize its madness: China Daily editorial

It is telling that some see the "madness" in China's COVID-19 policy but they cannot see the "madness" with which their own countries have been dealing with the virus.

In an article published by The Wall Street Journal on Friday, Holman W. Jenkins Jr, a member of the newspaper's editorial board, compared China's virus control policy to "authoritarian madness", citing the lockdowns of Shanghai and Shenzhen as examples, and declaring that "China turns COVID victory into defeat".

Jenkins and others who criticize China's epidemic prevention and control efforts, lazily yet deliberately distort China's measures with the tropes of authoritarianism. Bereft of neutrality and objectivity, they fail to explain the scientific rationale for those efforts or the consequences of the alternative course of action that they endorse, which have been so tragically evident in their own countries.

In the United States, for example, people's lives, particularly those of the poor, the colored and the elderly, have, in effect, been sacrificed for partisan politics, and the buck-passing between the federal and local governments.

With less than 4 percent of the world's population, the US accounts for about 16 percent of COVID-19 infections and deaths worldwide. With about 19 percent of the world's population, China's COVID-19 infections and deaths over the past more than two years have been less than those of the US in one month on average.

The argument of Jenkins is self-contradictory, as he admits China's "COVID victory" even as he denies it.

Some Western media mocked the lockdown of Wuhan more than two years ago. Yet what has unfolded since has highlighted their shortsightedness. It is ridiculous that some of them still display the same ignorance, hypocrisy and prejudice after what has transpired in their countries compared with the situation in China over the past two years.

To call China's successful people-first response "mad", while taking the US' failed politics-first approach to be "normal" is to deny the data that show that the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is not "flu plus".

Even as China's response has become more experienced, better organized and more efficient thanks to big data and other technologies, some Western media can't hide their delight at seizing the opportunity to distort China to fit their chosen mold and to indulge in some schadenfreude at China's expense.

The WSJ article is a sorry indictment of the mentality that prevails among some in the US when it comes to China.