[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] Although China announced a sharp decline in new COVID-19 infections following the easing of quarantine measures, skepticism is spreading within Chinese society that the actual situation is not being reflected.
According to the National Health Commission of China on the 10th, the number of new COVID-19 infections in mainland China the previous day was 12,272 (excluding 313 cases reclassified from asymptomatic to symptomatic), a decrease of 3,091 from the day before.
This represents a roughly 70% decrease compared to the record high of 38,808 on the 27th of last month. Most regions saw a sharp decline, including Guangdong (2,812), which once approached 10,000 new daily infections, Chongqing (2,359), and Beijing (2,223), which had exceeded 5,000, all dropping to the 2,000 range.
However, on social media platforms such as Weibo, claims have been raised that the actual number of infections is much higher than the authorities’ announcements. This is attributed to an optical illusion caused by a reduction in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing following the easing of quarantine measures. On Weibo, posts questioned, "Can we believe that new infections suddenly dropped sharply when quarantine was eased and the floating population and face-to-face contact increased?" and suggested, "The authorities should either disclose adjusted statistics comparing the number of tests to previous periods or stop announcing figures altogether to maintain their credibility."
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of Global Times who has represented the Chinese authorities’ stance, also posted on WeChat the previous day, stating, "No one will believe the authenticity of the authorities’ announcement that new infections have decreased," and criticized, "Infections are being reported using calculation methods that deviate from the actual situation in various regions; either disclose accurate figures or switch to non-disclosure."
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