After being criticised and accused by nearly the whole world for not handling the novel coronavirus in a right manner, Chinese President Xi Jinping has claimed that China passed “an extraordinary and historic test”.

China organised an awards ceremony for medical professionals on Tuesday in which selected front-line workers were awarded with medals and applause for containing and handling the COVID-19 virus.

Calling the workers “heroes”, and claiming that the country went through a “heroic struggle” against the novel coronavirus, Xi Jinping said, “We quickly achieved initial success in the people’s war against the coronavirus. We are leading the world in economic recovery and in the fight against Covid-19.”

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The ceremony was held at Great Hall of the People. The honour ceremony began with a moment of silence to pay respects to the ones who lost their battle against the virus.

Four “heroes” from the medical field were awarded with medals of honours in the ceremony which was attended by hundreds of masked delegates.

Zhong Nanshan, China’s 83-year-old famous medical expert, was also awarded the medal by Xi Jinping. Nanshan is a famous medical expert who also became the face of China in their fight against the coronavirus.

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“We will join hands with the… world’s medical workers to continue the fight in tracing the origins of the virus,” said Zhong.

Other than Nanshan, three others were honoured with the title of “The People’s Hero”. The list included biochemical expert Chen Wei, the head of a hospital in Wuhan, and a 72-year-old expert in traditional Chinese medicine.

However, no mention of the whistleblower doctor Li Wenliang or the accusations by other countries was made. 

China has been accused of spreading the novel coronavirus in the world by the US President Donald Trump. In addition to the US, the Xi administration has also faced backlash and rise in diplomatic tensions with Australia, India, and few other countries in the past few months.