https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200323/15495744154/apple-helps-china-censor-citizens-pulling-plug-keyboard-app-that-encrypted-text-messages.shtml

China keeps being China, despite all the problems it has at home. The coronavirus traces back to Wuhan, China, and it has become clear the Chinese government is doing what it can to suppress reporting on the outbreak.

The country has a fine-tuned censorship machine that works in concert with its overbearing surveillance apparatus to ensure the government maintains control of the narrative. "Ensures" is perhaps too strong a term because, despite its best efforts, information always leaks out around the edges.