China's initial response to the
coronavirus received praise but now with
the accusations of cover-ups crackdowns
and even forced quarantines beginning to
mount is China trying to shut down
coronavirus whistleblowers the start of
criticism towards the Chinese
authorities with the death of
whistleblowing doctor Li wen yang
he's one of now two high-profile doctors
to die as a result of the outbreak dr.
Li was working at Wuhan central hospital
when he saw multiple instances of this
coronavirus now known officially as Ovid
19 inpatients he tried to warn fellow
medics over a messaging app at the end
of December telling them to wear
protective clothing because
communication is so monitored in China
the authorities soon caught up with dr.
Li police then made him sign a letter
which accused him of making false
comments that had severely disrupted the
social order in an interview with the
New York Times
doctor Lee said he felt he was being
wronged at the time but he had to accept
it and if there was more openness and
transparency it would have been a lot
better just one week after dr. Lee blew
the whistle
the first death bomb the virus was
confirmed less than six weeks later dr.
Lee himself was dead from the very virus
he tried to warn against social media is
heavily censored in China yet many went
online to hell the doctor as a martyr
and hero
there's even footage of citizens blowing
whistles in unison and it wasn't just
ordinary people reacting government
officials celebrities and business
leaders joined in at the time remember
millions of Chinese people were holed up
inside under lockdown and they had hours
to pour over messages of outrage after
dr. Lee's death the phrase we want
freedom of speech began to trend on
Weibo the twitter-like website in China
before it was censored this image
showing dr. Lee's mask with barbed wire
was also shared widely unusually the
Communist Party bowed to this pressure
they've said they now sent an inspection
group to thoroughly investigate issues
relating to dr. Lee's
and other Chinese authorities paid their
respects publicly boy Java Xiang Zi and
call me
the I'll shoot shins here hey dot see
I'm leavin now yishun that's yeah sure
y'all shoot Chung to leave this kind of
fast response to public dissent in China
is rare the doctor who first blew the
whistle about the SARS virus in 2003 has
been erased from official records of the
time citizen journalists have also been
disappearing increasing the tension
between freedom of speech on the
internet and China's one-party state
using this is businessman Fang Bing who
became well-known for posting videos
online of Wuhan the 50 at the center of
the corona virus outbreak his footage
appears to show relatives mourning sick
and dead loved ones in a Wuhan Hospital
he was campaigning for people to speak
out about the realities of the virus
accusing the Chinese government of a
cover-up you jump on board with you teen
gender figure Ginga via Fang beans
account went quiet on the 7th of
February his last video was a piece of
paper reading all citizens resist hand
power back to the people
he's one of at least four people
reportedly detained by Chinese
authorities this month
Cheng Cuccia a lawyer who was also
documenting life in Wuhan has vanished
friends and family said they believed
he'd been forcibly quarantined and Xu
Zhu young who's a lawyer and activist is
also thought to have been detained
Jiujiang wrong a prominent academic
became the first high-profile figure to
call out president G for his handling of
the crisis he wrote an essay called
viral alarm when fury overcomes fear in
it he said the spread of the virus was
down to the rotten core of Chinese
governance this kind of public criticism
of President Xi is not the done thing in
China reportedly the professor has since
been placed under house arrest for
days his friends say he's been barred
from social media and is now cut off
from the internet he's not the only
academic to take a stand 10 Wuhan
professors signed an open letter to the
government they demanded the right to
freedom of speech and asked President
Xi's party to apologize and compensate
whistleblowers the corona virus outbreak
is causing Chinese citizens to challenge
their government like never before but
China's response to the virus has been
internationally praised for the most
part not like in 2003 when the SARS
outbreak was hugely damaging China were
heavily criticized for withholding
information about the epidemic for too
long of course a lots changed since then
we can now diagnose viruses quicker and
this time transparency has been much
better the World Health Organization
says China told him about this
coronavirus on the 31st of December 2019
that's just one day after dr. Lee sent
those warning messages to medics telling
the World Health Organization mean
scientists can work together quickly to
try and stop an epidemic in its tracks
they praised China's more open approach
in countless press conferences China has
taken it one of the most ancient
strategies for infectious disease
control and rolled out probably the most
ambitious and I would say agile and
aggressive disease containment effort in
history even some of the country's most
famous critics praised their efforts
I spoke with President Xi of China and
he's working very hard and there's a
tremendous problem but they're very
capable and they'll they'll get to it
their practical response drew admiration
China built two hospitals at lightning
speed in Wuhan dared to deal with the
virus one was built in ten days another
in 12 together they both 2600 beds but
official data shows that the hospitals
are running at just half their capacity
the number of beds are far outstripping
the number of patients being treated and
this is where the international
community's concerns lie what is
propaganda and what is truth while
scientists tried to find
or fork over 19 the political debate
rages on the virus has now killed more
than 2,000 people globally with new
infections daily the international
community has praised China's Swift
response to the crisis but they're also
aware of the massive economic pain the
country is in with millions of people
off work and businesses not operating
normally with that economic pressure
comes an urgent need to potentially
downplay the threat of the virus while
China claims the number of new
infections are falling the World Health
Organization says it's still too early
to determine a downward trend with a new
disease the battle for facts is tense
and crucial but now we see many Chinese
people demanding better information and
greater freedom of speech than an
authoritarian government might allow
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