Twentieth-century Chinese writer Lu Xun noted, “Lies written in ink cannot disguise facts written in blood.” Lies—and bloodshed—are endemic to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP is scrawling out its duplicitous actions that enabled the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression and, according to a University of Southampton study, 95% of all COVID-19 deaths.

The CCP lied about the outbreak’s severity. Wuhan bloggers, health administrators, and doctors—one who later died from COVID-19—warned of a latent pandemic, and leading CCP officials further understood the virus extent and transmissibility. But the CCP lied. It muzzled, reprimanded, and disappeared whistleblowers; halted COVID-19 testing indicating COVID-19’s spread; and concealed data from, stonewalled notifications to, and told the World Health Organization there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.”

The CCP lied about its early pandemic response effectiveness. Despite knowing of an emerging pandemic, top CCP leaders allowed Wuhan officials to conduct a weeklong CCP conclave, hold massive government shopping fairs, host a Lunar New Year potluck attended by forty thousand families, and let five million people leave the city, planting COVID-19 throughout China and ultimately the world. But the CCP lied. It repeatedly claimed to have implemented “strict prevention and control schemes” even as millions left Wuhan, and state-owned Xinhua News Agency even entitled an editorial “China highly responsible in curbing virus spread.”

The CCP lied about COVID-19’s origins. The international scientific community, including Shanghai’s leading health official, said COVID-19 originated in Wuhan. But the CCP lied. Zhao Lijian, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, tweeted, “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data. US owe us an explanation!” State-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN) also peddled the U.S.-origin biolab conspiracy, and “thousands of fake and hijacked” CCP-linked Twitter accounts support the ongoing disinformation campaign.

These egregious lies, however, are unsurprising: the CCP is a chronic liar.

The CCP said Chinese companies operate independently from its spy agencies. But the CCP used Chinese companies to spy on the African Union.

The CCP said it follows international law. But the CCP called the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling against China “naturally null and void.”

The CCP said it respects other countries’ internal affairs. But the CCP bribed a prominent Australian politician to espouse pro-Beijing views.

The CCP said it adheres to UN sanctions. But the CCP purposefully violated UN sanctions against North Korea.

The CCP said it respects democratic elections. But the CCP sought to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump and Republicans by criticizing the U.S.-China trade war in battleground-state Iowa’s Des Moines Register just weeks before the 2018 midterm elections.

The CCP said it would not militarize illegal artificial islands in the South China Sea. But the CCP militarized and continues to fortify those islands.

The CCP said it heeds foreign visitors’ rights. But the CCP uses exit bans to extrajudicially detain foreigners, including Americans.

The CCP said it would stop cyberattacks against U.S. corporations. But Chinese companies still steal $600 billion of U.S. intellectual property annually.

The CCP said it would open and liberalize its economy. But the CCP still imposes onerous non-tariff measures on imports, operates state-owned enterprises worth $29.2 trillion, and annually spends 3% of its GDP on subsidies—an estimated $424 billion in 2019 and nearly $300 billion more than annual U.S. subsidy expenditures.

The CCP said it upholds Hong Kong’s ‘one country, two systems.’ But the CCP demands Hong Kong quell pro-democracy demonstrations.

The CCP said it protects religious and ethnic minorities. But the CCP punitively bulldozes churches and mosques, suppresses Buddhism in Tibet, and unlawfully detains two million Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

In his book 1984, George Orwell wrote, “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth.” Previously, the international community largely accepted CCP lies in order to reap China’s economic benefits, and therefore allowed the CCP’s bloody deeds to pass silently into history: forty million forced abortions, twenty million compulsory sterilizations, three million deaths during the Cultural Revolution, and forty-five million deaths as a result of the Great Leap Forward.

So, now, will the world accept more CCP lies, unprecedented economic destruction, and another three hundred thousand—and rising—CCP-enabled deaths to pass silently into history? Or will the international community set the record straight by investigating COVID-19’s origin and the CCP’s early response—and holding the CCP accountable?