Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times felt that Xi 's crackdown on journalism led to misinformation , inaction and therefore spread of the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic in mainland China .
This has been attributed to the censorship institutional structure of the country 's press and Internet , with Jude Blanchette of the Center for Strategic and International Studies quoted stating `` under Xi Jinping , the inclination to suppress has become endemic and , in this case , contributed to a prolonged period of inaction that allowed the virus to spread '' .
2019–20 coronavirus pandemic in mainland China