As the latest wave of COVID cases surges in the West, all is quiet in the East.  It has always been quiet.  Millions have died from the coronavirus epidemic as it sweeps the world.  However, few consider it strange that the nation where the virus first appeared amid an entirely unprotected public of 1.3 billion people should record a mere 4,636 fatalities over the past three years.

China's statistics remain in the hands of officials who carefully do everything possible to make sure China's image remains unblemished.  They claim that low numbers are due to the communist nation's brutal "zero tolerance" policies.  China is presented as a model for the West.

Some voices are appearing that dispute this claim.  One expert says the fatality figures are likely closer to 1.7 million.  This figure would put China in the same camp as the rest of the world.  It would also point to the failure of the world's strictest lockdown and explain the recent shutdowns of whole cities and regions due to the virus, which supposedly kills no one in China.

Statistically Impossible

George Calhoun, director of the quantitative finance program at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, claims that China is engaged in systematic data suppression.  His research is based on models developed by The Economist and reported by the Epoch Times.

Government statistics record, for example, that only two deaths have taken place in China since April 2020.  This amazing immunity from death occurred while the pandemic raged everywhere, treatments were unknown, and the Chinese population was unprotected. 

"That's impossible.  It's medically impossible, it's statistically impossible," Mr. Calhoun claims.

Other Evidence of Cover-Up

Throughout the COVID crisis, China has been accused of suppressing the death toll.  Cai Xia, a Chinese professor who taught at the elite Central Party School, was expelled from the Communist Party when he insisted that the death toll had been misreported.

When the virus first broke out in Wuhan, inhabitants claimed that the toll was much more than the 3,000–4,000 released by the government.  Based on the deliveries of funeral urns and other data, many estimated that some 42,000 people were killed by March of 2020 in Wuhan alone.

Statistics as a Weapon

Communist parties have always used statistics as a tool and weapon to advance their agenda.  Officials feel free to change the numbers to reflect well upon the state, which controls everything.  Truth is whatever furthers the fortunes of the party.  If statistics must be changed as a result, there is no problem.  Hence the notorious unreliability of communist statistics.

The problem is complicated by anxious officials who must report good news to party leaders or face the consequences of their failures, including death.  Zero tolerance numbers may be statistically impossible and even absurd, but most officials prefer their survival over inconvenient truths.

Also disturbing is the complicity of Western media that repeat the cooked numbers of communist regimes.  Few dare to question impossible figures or "follow the science" when leftist prestige is involved.  During the long Cold War, the West presented the Soviet Union as the second-largest economy. When the Berlin Wall fell, the actual size of the economy was found to be significantly less.

Treating Citizens like Prisoners  

The COVID figures show that the communist State reigns supreme in China.  It can change reality to reflect whatever it wants.  Moreover, the regime cares little for the well-being of its people.  All must serve the state.   

The effort to safeguard China's reputation is now entering a brutal phase, especially as the Winter Olympic Games approaches.  Reported COVID outbreaks of as little as one or two cases have triggered massive lockdowns of whole cities.  Zero tolerance strategies are now in place involving millions of people under draconian restrictions that include banning outdoor activity and even grocery shopping.

Rounds of citywide testing are commonplace, while businesses and schools are closed.  Massive quarantine camps holding thousands in tiny metal-box cabins have been constructed all over the country.  Citizens can suddenly be bused to these camps, where they spend isolation periods of two weeks.

Despite all efforts, fresh cases of COVID continue to rise, closing down sectors of the economy.  Meanwhile, official statistics show hundreds (only) of new cases but continue to register no new deaths...  It is just unbelievably amazing.

Image: Our World in Data.