I'm next door to them. They are really good at spinning stories to their people. However embarrassing.

Recent flood, one of the state media headlined an outright lie that US govt states that China earned respect from around the globe through its flood rescue effort. Lied about the amount of rainfall and the capabilities of their dams. Some TV news station just never show flood footage. Any challenge to the effort is branded as foreign influence.

For story like this if turned out to be vapor, the blame would be easily placed in thousands of places but themselves.