Tourists throng the streets of Xichang, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province on January 27, 2023. During the Spring Festival, Xichang received more than 100,000 tourists a day during the peak period. Photo: VCG

The current COVID-19 epidemic wave in China is nearing its end, and the virus did not rebound significantly during the Spring Festival holidays, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese CDC) said recently. 

This is to say that in the aftermath of the infection surge in December, China has achieved a breakthrough.

The Chinese Lunar New Year that has just passed created a new market boom, with tourism and box office revenues outshining those of last year. The Spring Festival holidays have always been an important window for the outside world to observe the tendency of China's domestic consumer market, and this year is even more special. As the first Spring Festival holidays after China optimized and adjusted its COVID policy, international organizations, observers from all walks of life, and market traders are eager to get a feel of the strength of China's economy from various data.

Over the last three years, China's COVID death rate has undoubtedly been much lower than its counterparts in the US and Europe. China has successfully avoided the fiercest period of the epidemic and achieved a smooth transition.

Since China optimized its COVID-19 policy in December, some of the US and Western media outlets have waged a public opinion offensive against China. Even until two weeks ago, pieces of this kind could be widely seen. Yet in recent days, such articles have remarkably waned and their arguments have become much weaker.

Facts speak louder than speculations. The fresh attempts by some US and Western media outlets to badmouth China by virtue of the latter's optimization of COVID response have already backfired. The recent changes in these US and Western media's reports demonstrate that China has achieved a smooth transition, and their recent smears don't hold water. 

The whole world has witnessed a surge in population flow during the Spring Festival holidays, as well as a boom in tourism consumption. And another COVID surge after the Lunar New Year travel rush which some US and Western media predicted did not take place. On Sunday, when most Chinese returned to work after the holidays, The Guardian published an article repeating the cliché that "After three years of lockdowns, the country was ill prepared for its abrupt 'freedom.'"

The US and Western media have a consistent bias against China, which determines that their interpretation of all China-related topics, including the epidemic, cannot be objective and impartial. 

As Washington has long regarded China as a top adversary, some of its media outlets, as well as the media of the US' Western allies, have to coordinate with their governments' political warfare against China, in a bid to create momentum in public opinion and impair China's international image, notably in the field of handling the epidemic. These media are short of basic conscience and professionalism.

"China's official data lacks transparency" has been an old trick and rhetoric these media accustomed to play. When claiming that the current COVID-19 epidemic wave in China is nearing its end, the Chinese CDC cited a load of statistics. It cannot be ruled out that these media will once again accuse these data of not being true. 

"China's response to the COVID-19 has still been the best across the world, but this is something these media are reluctant to see. As a response, they rack their brains to cover up their governments' incompetence, or rationalize their incapacity. Claiming that China's data lacks transparency is just one of such bids," said Lü Xiang, an expert on US studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

In the past three years, the Chinese government has adopted responsible policies and measures, done its upmost and made crucial contributions to protect the lives and health of the Chinese people, promote global solidarity to fight the pandemic, and push for the recovery of the global economy. In terms of fighting against the epidemic, China has delivered a satisfactory answer sheet. 

China has achieved a smooth transition in the current COVID-19 epidemic. Both the dynamic zero-COVID policy and China's rapid pass of the infection peak in just more than one month can be seen as triumph. 

Whatever the US and Western media slander, China's achievements in fighting the epidemic cannot be erased. Rhetoric that ignores China's three-year anti-epidemic achievements and its contribution to the world and badmouthing China by discrediting its anti-epidemic efforts will not change the confidence of the international community in China. It is believed that the year 2023 will usher in economic recovery and that the prosperity prior to the COVID-19 epidemic will soon return to China.