COVID - What's the Standard Fair?

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Over a million people have died of COVID in America, which is a huge number and a source of shame to America's political system. But it has been on the news in China most nights of the week for the entirety of the pandemic. And all of those kind of happy Chinese shots of combine harvesters and fields full of corn, aircraft carriers zooming through the oceans are completely normal.

The enforcers of the hardliners’ mores may have been disbanded; it is hard to know if the regime is bending to protesters or sowing confusion. Either way the disquiet looks set to continue. We take a look at China’s widely watched nightly news and the narrative it hopes to promulgate. And why women are suddenly flooding into America’s funeral-services industry. Help us make the show better: take our listener survey at http://economist.com/intelligencesurvey For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer