Editors Address Chinese Expulsions

     In a full page ad in today's(3/24/20)  Wall Street Journal, the 3 publishers of the three national daily newspapers address the leader of the Chinese Communist government in Beijing.  They express disdain for the recent move by Pres. Xi to expel from China the reporting staff of their respective organizations that collectively brought the news of the Coronavirus to the world ahead of any announcements by the Beijing leadership.  Pres. Xi and his staff surpressed dissemination of the facts surrounding the virus as it spread in the mega-city of Wuhan, intentionally misleading various news organizations.  Chinese doctors were chastised for publicly making statements concerning the outbreak.

     The publishers explain, as they often have, that this policy of restricting the flow of information does considerable more harm than good not only to the Chinese people, but also the world population.  Foreign countries depend on accurate information, and continued obstacles put in place by Beijing does not help the experts get timely and factual data needed to address the pandemic that began on Chinese soil.  The publishers:  William Lewis of the WSJ; Fred Ryan of the Washington Post; and A.G. Sulzberger of the New York Times provided a public service by calling out this national policy that will only serve to continue the world's perception that the Chinese government is out of step with modern times and its adherence to the Communist Manifesto of rigid state control of information is detrimental to world health and world governance.

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