On his first visit to the Wuhan epidemic, President Xi Jinping seemed to show the world that China had "won" Covid-19.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 10 first visited Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, since Covid-19 broke out in the city, spreading throughout the country and appearing all over the world. The 11 million-people city has been frozen since the end of January, in an unprecedented drastic effort to prevent nCoV from spreading.

The visit, in the wake of China's anti-Covid-19 measures over the past two months, seems to be paying off. China today recorded 24 new cases across the country, up slightly from 19 yesterday, very low compared to 500-600 cases a month ago.

The total number of current cases is 81,000 and more than 3,100 deaths, but 70% have recovered and discharged, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) report.

"Now things have improved and he wants to show that his leadership has been successful," said Minxin Pei, a professor of Chinese politics at Claremont McKenna University in California, USA. "The message is now let us look at how the West is awkward and incompetent."

"It is time to 'pluck fruit' and show the world that China can effectively control the disease," said Zhang Lifan, a historian in Beijing.

International experts say China could have controlled Covid-19 more easily and quickly, preventing it from spilling out if officials promptly responded in early January, when the number of cases in Wuhan increased, rather than frantically blockade the city at the end of the month, when the disease showed signs of losing control.

However, Chinese state-run media are telling a completely different story. They praised Xi as "the leader of the people" for leading an "all-people war" to repel the epidemic, while turning health workers on the front lines into national heroes.

The country's major newspapers on March 10 reported that the last 14 field hospitals, used to isolate nCoV-infected patients, were closed because they were no longer needed.

"Over the past week, the Chinese propaganda machine has been working wildly, emphasizing the number of domestic infections is decreasing, in contrast to the rapidly increasing number of cases in other countries," said Yun Jiang, a former official. Australian government official, who is co-editor of the China Neican blog site, said. "They are trying to spread positive stories about the state's efforts to handle the situation as well as the Chinese Communist Party."

Before yesterday's visit, President Xi had not set foot in Hubei since the outbreak, instead, he sent Deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang and in recent days Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chunlan to the epidemic area. . Last week, when visiting apartments in Wuhan, Ms. Sun was shouted and protested by people from her balcony. They said that the Wuhan government's anti-epidemic effort was "purely false" and "formal."

"He is trying to fix the damage with a visit to Wuhan," said Pei expert from Claremont McKenna University. "In the past, he sent Deputy Prime Minister Li Keqiang instead of going to the epidemic area by himself, but this seems like a big mistake."

The visit to Wuhan is clearly a "triumphal trip" by Xi, Ryan Manuel, chief executive of Official China, a consulting firm on the Chinese political environment.

According to analysts, Xi's visit also aims to strengthen confidence in the domestic economy, which is struggling with disease.

Warning that Covid-19's influence on the economy was slowing down, President Xi called on businesses across the country to reopen and try to signal that things were returning to normal. , even in Hubei. The province is considering removing blockade orders at low or medium risk areas in the province.

Xi's visit to Wuhan is "an unmistakable sign that Chinese leaders believe victory has been within their reach," said commentator Bill Bishop from Sinocism magazine.