But when faced with a crisis, the party can’t seem to avoid grand gestures: building hospitals from scratch in two weeks, locking down tens of millions of people, banning millions more from traveling to big cities and so on. The most interesting question is why the party feels the need to carry on like this. And so we read endless profiles of Dr. Zhong in Chinese social media, discussing his family background, upbringing, successes and apolitical pursuit of science-based truth. Behind all this lies the feeling that most other people in the party can’t quite be trusted. This startling fact is now leaking out in online reports that are sometimes, but not always, being blocked.

Source: New York Times January 30, 2020 20:00 UTC