As world says good riddance to 2020, China hails its new status

THE Chinese government, while congratulating itself on its “extremely extraordinary” success in handling the coronavirus pandemic and the quick recovery of its economy, is attempting to control and channel an investigation by the World Health Organization (WHO) into the origin of the virus, which was first reported in Wuhan in December 2019.

While much of the world sees 2020 as an annus horribilis (a horrible year), in China’s assessment, it was a wonderful year. As the official Xinhua News Agency said in a New Year’s Day commentary, 2020 was “an extraordinary year in history that saw the pandemic bringing an unprecedented challenge to mankind as well as a fast-evolving international architecture,” and as 2021 begins, “China is standing on a new historical starting point.”