China's low COVID-19 body count, secrecy adds to credibility concerns

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China censoring research on COVID-19 origins, deleted page on Wuhan University website suggests

Are the Chinese hiding vital information on the coronavirus origins?

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As the death toll grows in other parts of the world from coronavirus, China's insistence on an implausible body count -- despite reporting a bump in cases of infection on Monday -- is not only being ridiculed but is chipping away at what little credibility the country has left.

China, which has a population of 1.4 billion and is considered to be the epicenter of the global COVID-19 outbreak, has only recorded 3,345 deaths. By comparison, in the United States, which has a population of 328 million, there have been 22,935 deaths. According to Johns Hopkins data, deaths per 100,000 in the U.S. were 6.73 while in China the number was significantly lower at 0.24. The idea that China is still claiming it has so few deaths is bringing renewed criticism to Beijing and the numbers it reports to the world.

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"China's Communist Party promotes the belief that the Chinese people are superior to all others on the planet," foreign affairs expert Gordon Chang told Fox News. "Beijing's unbelievably low reports of new coronavirus cases and deaths support this notion of a superior race."

So far, the number of people around the globe that have been confirmed to have coronavirus has soared past the 1.8 million mark. Countries, finding themselves at different stages of their own outbreaks, have been trying to mimic some of the stringent policies such as lockdowns and social distancing orders that other countries, which have reported reductions in their deaths, have implemented.

The novel coronavirus is so foreign, though, that no one knows quite what to do. No clear path has been established and billions have been at the mercy of the killer disease.

Being the first country to report on the outbreak, China's information has been vital for the global community but being able to count on China's data has been easier said than done.

Skepticism about China's numbers has swirled throughout the crisis, fueled by official efforts to quash bad news in the early days and a general distrust of the government. Long lines of people waiting to collect the ashes of loved ones at funeral homes as well as bleak reports from people on the ground in China have raised suspicion over the official numbers.

While there is no smoking gun to a cover-up -- intentional or not -- by China's ruling Communist Party, there is reason to believe that more people died of COVID-19 than the official tally suggests and that China's insistence that it didn't happen is making matters worse.

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For example, the health system in Wuhan, the city where three-fourths of China's victims died, was overwhelmed at the peak of the outbreak. Hospitals overflowed, patients with symptoms were sent home and there weren't enough test kits to test everyone.

Then came the onslaught of accusations from conservative commentators, intelligence officials as well as members of the Trump administration that cast direct doubt on Beijing's truthfulness. China, in turn, blamed the United States and the war of words between the two nations has continued with each trying to outscore the other in propaganda points.

That aside, the secrecy China is actively imposing on everything COVID-19 relating isn't boding well for the Asian country.

On Monday, CNN reported Beijing had imposed harsh restrictions on the publication of academic research on the origins of coronavirus. The media outlet, citing a central government directive and online notices published but then removed by two Chinese universities, said the new rules mean "all academic papers on COVID-19 will be subject to extra vetting before being submitted for publication."

"Studies on the origin of the virus will receive extra scrutiny and must be approved by central government officials," CNN reported. 

Such grasps at control seem to speak to China's need to control the narrative and eat away at its credibility.

China, though, is not alone in this. In any country, including the United States, getting a complete picture as the virus tears through continents is almost impossible.

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Hsu Li Yang, the head of the infectious diseases program at the National University of Singapore, told The Associated Press that getting a complete picture in the fog of the coronavirus outbreak is almost impossible for any nation.

"It is important to understand that these numbers -- be it from China, Italy, Singapore or the U.S. -- are all inaccurate, and they are all underestimates to varying degrees of the actual number of infections," Hsu said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.