Xi's excessive secrecy inflicts needless self-harm

A softer form of authoritarian rule would better serve Beijing's interests

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20210216 Xi Jinping image.jpg

An image of Xi Jinping at an exhibition on the fight against the outbreak in Wuhan, pictured on Jan. 23: the real lesson is the harm caused by excessive secrecy. © AP

Minxin Pei is professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and a nonresident senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Anniversaries are occasions for reflection. As China marks the anniversary of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan, it seems that its leaders ought to learn some lessons from this once-in-a-century calamity so that similar mistakes will not be made in the future.

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