Two brave books tell the story of lockdown in Wuhan

China’s new mantra is unequivocal. The country has won a “major and decisive victory” over covid-19. The outgoing prime minister, Li Keqiang, repeated this phrase on March 5th in a speech at the opening of the annual session of China’s parliament. He cautioned the nearly 3,000 masked delegates that the pandemic was not over, but he did not suggest the virus needed to be crushed, a feat that China spent nearly three years battling to achieve, until late in 2022. The Communist Party wants to move on from—and wants citizens to forget—the trauma of deaths and lockdowns.

The party is a master at controlling and confusing memories. Millions died in the famine triggered by Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s. But poor harvests were officially blamed on natural disasters. Without a free flow of information to help them identify the real culprit, most Chinese bought the party line. Likewise, many who have grown up since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 are confused about what happened. Some sympathise with the party’s decision to crush what were in fact peaceful demonstrations, believing the official narrative that large riots had broken out.