Xi Has Lots at Stake as China Officials Point Fingers Over Virus
- President Xi now personally directing the party’s response
- Lower level officials blame each other for missed chances
Xi Jinping
Photographer: Nyein Chan Naing/AFP via Getty Images
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Since taking power Chinese President Xi Jinping has effectively made himself “chairman of everything.” The coronavirus scare is showing all the risks involved with that strategy.
Xi last week took direct control of the response to the outbreak, showing the high stakes in a crisis that has now killed 259 people in China and spurred panic across the globe. He’s overseen extreme measures, including quarantining more than 50 million people -- roughly equivalent to the population of Spain -- and rapidly building two new hospitals.