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The Chinese Communist Party’s state television network CGTN published a video on Friday blaming “colonialism” for the ongoing devastation in Maui, Hawaii, where wildfires are believed to have left hundreds dead and devastated the historic town of Lahaina in August.
CGTN Opinion Editor Huang Jiyuan claimed the American government’s lack of a comprehensive disaster plan and centuries of agricultural development in Hawaii left Maui residents vulnerable. While narrating the video, Huang did not use the word “colonialism” himself, but the word repeatedly appeared on screen as he asked “why” the fire became such a catastrophic event.
Maui is facing the near-total loss of the community of Lahaina and recovery efforts continue to save the dead. Local resident Dale Hermo-Fernandez told Breitbart News in a report on Thursday that local authorities have found over 450 bodies, many of them expected to be children staying home alone when the fires began.
“I guarantee you right now, from what has been seen, the number is over 450 and it’s gonna get — it’s gonna get closer to 1,000,” Hermo-Fernandez predicted.
Investigations to find the source of the fire and assess the response remain ongoing at press time.
HEARTBREAKING: Officials Conduct Grim Work of Searching Waters Off Maui for Victims of Wildfires
The Chinese government has used other state media outlets, most prominently the propaganda newspaper Global Times, to attack America as an example of “the incompetence of the U.S. government,” which it branded as “sluggish and indifferent” compared to communist China.
The coverage of Hawaii has served to distract the government’s Chinese audience from a nearly month-long natural disaster in Hebei province, China. In early August, Typhoon Doksuri forced over a million people to evacuate and – thanks to the government diverting floodwaters to protect communist elites in Beijing and the largely uninhabited pet project Xiong’an – devastated the city of Zhuozhou, about 50 miles from Beijing.
