World News

China’s history of public health cover up | Slavery casts a shadow on global finance

Posted by: The Conversation Global

Date: Wednesday, 26 August 2020

 

When Wuhan was gripped by the coronavirus epidemic earlier this year, several Chinese blogs recommended people read a 1958 poem by Communist leader Mao Zedong. Entitled ‘Sending off the plague God,’ the poem celebrated the success of a campaign to eradicate the devastating parasitic disease, schistosomiasis, from Yujiang, a small county in central China.

But schistosomiasis was never eradicated in Mao’s China, despite the state’s continuing claims to the contrary, writes historian Xun Zhou. In a new book, she draws from rarely seen archives and fresh interviews with villagers and party officials to unpick the history of the campaign and the cover-up of its failure. She says little has changed in China’s relationship between propaganda and public health since the 1950s.

In other news, Philip Roscoe, writes about how an infamous 18th century trial shows how slavery continues to cast a shadow on global finance today.

Gemma Ware

Global Affairs Editor and Podcast Producer

China’s campaign from the 1950s to eradicate schistosomiasis, or ‘snail fever’, has been lauded ever since. US National Library of Medicine

Mao’s China falsely claimed it had eradicated schistosomiasis – and it’s still celebrating that ‘success’ in propaganda today

Xun Zhou, University of Essex

New research shows China's claim to have eradicated this parasitic disease in the 1950s were false, and part of a big cover up.

Shutterstock.com

How the shadow of slavery still hangs over global finance

Philip Roscoe, University of St Andrews

Slave traders transformed human lives into profit-bearing opportunities – just like modern finance.

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