Editor's note

“Anyone who does not report they have fever is the class enemy of the people.” So read a big red banner on display in rural Hubei, the Chinese province at the centre of the new coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 400 people. For historian Xun Zhou, it was a message reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, and a stark reminder of how inextricably linked politics and health have always been for the Chinese Communist Party.

Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, public health became one of the central means for the Chinese state to influence the masses. The party knew that promises of healing and health were powerful forms of propaganda. And China eventually began to export its rural healthcare model, using it to curry favour in international institutions such as the UN and World Health Organization.

Still, Zhou writes that China is a long way from being the disease free “socialist garden” imagined in the CCP’s utopian plans.

Meanwhile, although people want to avoid flight shame, they are less keen on avoiding flights. We’ve also brought back our podcast of audio long reads, In Depth Out Loud. In the first episode of the new season, listen to how a Frenchman born 150 years ago inspired the politics of today’s New Right. Finally, the Democratic presidential primary contest got off to a rocky start as results of the Iowa caucus were delayed due to “inconsistencies”. Here are how things are done in some other countries.

Gemma Ware

Global Affairs Editor

Top stories

A patient is transferred to a new temporary hospital in Wuhan. EPA

Coronavirus: how health and politics have always been inextricably linked in China

Xun Zhou, University of Essex

The Chinese Communist Party has long used healthcare as part of its propaganda operation.

Flygskam, or “flight shame,” has done little to counteract the effects of air travel. Ivan Marc/ Shutterstock

People hate flight shame – but not enough to quit flying

Roger Tyers, University of Southampton

Carbon offsetting and new airplanes won't keep up with emissions from an ever-expanding aviation industry.

Members of far right group Generation Identitaire march in Paris in November 2019. Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA

In Depth Out Loud podcast: how a Frenchman born 150 years ago inspired the extreme nationalism behind Brexit and Donald Trump

Pablo de Orellana, King's College London; Nicholas Michelsen, King's College London

The audio version of a long-read article on how we're living through the latest battle in a 300-year long ideological war over the meaning of humanity itself.

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