Heroes and villains: Beijing crafts its narrative on virus outbreak

Beijing (AFP) Feb 15, 2020

China's government is purging unpopular local officials and commandeering heroic stories of doctors on the frontline as it tries to shield itself from public rage over the handling of the deadly coronavirus epidemic. Facing the biggest challenge of his presidency, Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has cast the crisis as a "people's war" and state media have gone into overdrive to regain cont