You are no doubt referencing this New York Times article by Yuan Li:

“The banality of evil” is a concept Chinese intellectuals often invoke in moments like Xi’an. It was coined by the philosopher Hannah Arendt, who wrote that Adolf Eichmann, one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, was an ordinary man who was motivated by “an extraordinary diligence in looking out for his personal advancement.”

Which do you think is easier for “personal advancement” - sending a group of unarmed, frightened and obedient Jews into the shower, or working at high-risk locations to curb a virus that is highly contagious and potentially lethal?

This is the fundamental difference between Nazi bureaucracy, and Chinese bureaucracy. One is about taking lives, the other is about saving them. Yuan deliberately misconstrues the concept of “banality of evil” here, by pulling the most classical of straw man fallacies.

For the officials, virus control comes first. The people’s lives, well-being and dignity come much later.

And they say the NYT is “leftist”.

The whole point of controlling the virus is to safeguard peoples’ lives and wellbeing. The right to life is the most basic human right, upon which all other human rights are established. In China, a total number of four people have died to the virus since last October.

Meanwhile, 2,500 Americans die every day to the virus, all because the American elite prioritises the economy and advances their own personal finances over the people.

That’s banality of evil.

A high profile journalist like Yuan chooses to abuse her platform, by slandering hugely successful and necessary life-saving pandemic measures, and purposefully undermining the lives and sacrifices of others, all just to further her own anti-China agenda and career in mainstream media, and to be accepted by American society at a time when Americans of Chinese descent are overwhelmingly seen as spies and infiltrators.

That’s banality of evil.

You wanna talk about saving the economy instead of saving human lives? Then let’s talk about the economy.

Daily necessities like food, toilet paper, masks and everything at Walmart don’t just grow out of supermarket shelves. They’re made in China.

Manufacturing is one of the most high-risk industries during a pandemic, because of how crowded and poorly ventilated factories tend to be. And yet even with total lockdowns in some major cities, China has managed to keep most of its factories running.

If China failed to get COVID under control, rather than just dying by the thousands like in America, tens to hundreds of thousands of people would be dying instead each day, given the size of the population, and the fact that as a developing country, it lacks healthcare resources.

By then, none of the machines would be operational. Production would come to a halt. Social and political structures would collapse. Anything that could go wrong, will go wrong. And for you privileged, pampered developed country residents out there, that means you can kiss your toilet paper and your precious economy goodbye.

Zero-COVID is the only moral option. It is the only economical option. It is the only sensible option. It is the only option.