President Xi Jinping promoted political allies in a reshuffle yesterday to better tackle an outbreak of the deadly coronavirus in Hubei province and deal with a restive Hong Kong as part of efforts to ease growing criticism.
The shake-up comes amid widening public displeasure about what critics said were early attempts by local officials to suppress information about the severity of the epidemic - the latest and biggest crisis facing Mr Xi since he assumed power in 2012 - which has spread to about two dozen countries since December, infecting more than 60,000 and killing close to 1,400 people.
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