Apologies for a crime they did? Strange.
I suspect that the Chinese Communist Party is working hard on damage control. Mao ruled through both force of personality and brute force when required. As the leader of the “revolution,” he had a level of following among the party faithful no else could match.
Since then, the Party has relied upon its reputation. China was a chaotic mess for the century and a half before the CCP’s 1949 victory. The Party has argued that they alone can bring stability and prosperity to China. Until now, they have been able to shove responsibility for mistakes onto local and regional party officials. The national party could deplore actions, fire and/or execute officials, and claim the problem solved.
Since they hamfisted their response to the Wuhan virus, and got a lot of people killed. General Secretary Xi and the Party leadership are now frantically trying to show that a) its not their fault; b) only the Party’s leaders can fix the situation; and c) the Party is not weak, challenging the Party and/or leadership is a deadly mistake.
Blaming the U.S. for the virus and making this apology are just two steps of this damage control effort.
Where is Chen Qiushi, China?
We are going to call it “China Virus” until you let him go and let him talk.
If you killed him, it will be the “Xi Virus”. (because we’ll probably have to call the next 10 global pandemics “china virus”, too.)
“In an unusual admission of error, the ruling Communist Party’s top disciplinary body has now revoked its earlier decision...”
The Chinks must believe there’s an upside to this action....either financial or saving face. They do nothing of this nature if it doesn’t provide a reward to themselves.