Chinese officials have arrested a dissident who blamed the coronavirus pandemic on the regime’s “suppression” of doctors and journalists who could have warned Chinese people and the world.
“There were few independent professional media to investigate and report on the outbreak, nor did medical professionals provide independent advice to the public,” Shanghai-based constitutional scholar Zhang Xuezhong wrote in an open letter on Saturday. “It only shows that the government’s long-term tight control of society and people has almost completely destroyed the organization and self-help capabilities of Chinese society.”
Zhang, one of several local intellectuals who have taken the risk of arguing that China’s authoritarian political system contributed to the outbreak, paired that rebuke with a call for freedom of speech. Within 24 hours, “three police cars” arrived at his home to arrest him, according to a friend.
“He was taken away on Sunday night,” the friend, Wen Kejian, told the South China Morning Post.
Chinese officials have waged a domestic and international campaign to deny responsibility for the pandemic, with senior diplomats claiming that the U.S. Army brought the virus to Wuhan, the city where it first emerged. Zhang’s open letter buttresses some aspects of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s insistence that communist officials caused “suffering” at home and abroad through their hostility to transparency in the early days of the outbreak.
“Since January 3, 2020, the [Chinese] foreign ministry had been regularly notifying the US government about the epidemic, but the disease control department was not notifying the people of [China] at the same time,” Zhang wrote. “Such an irresponsible attitude towards their people’s safety is rare.”
That statement uses the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s timeline of its response to the pandemic against the communist party. Chinese officials cite Jan. 3 as the first day that China notified the U.S. government of the outbreak, but President Trump’s administration faults Beijing for telling the World Health Organization in mid-January that the virus was not being transmitted rapidly between humans.
“Twenty-two days before the [lockdown to contain the outbreak] in the city, Wuhan was still investigating and punishing citizens who had disclosed the epidemic, including Dr. Li Wenliang … showing how tight and arbitrary the government’s suppression of society is,” Zhang also wrote.
That was a reference to the doctor who emerged as a “martyr” for freedom of speech after he was punished for sounding the alarm before dying of the disease caused by the new coronavirus. White House officials likewise have highlighted Li’s experience to denounce the Chinese system of government.
“Anyone tempted to believe this was just a case of overzealous local police, take note: China’s central government aired a news story about Dr. Li’s ‘rumor-mongering,’” White House deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger said last week. “Dr. Ai Fen, a colleague of Dr. Li Wenliang who also raised the alarm about the outbreak in Wuhan, reportedly can no longer appear in public after she spoke to a reporter.”
Zhang emphasized that “the outbreak and spread of the Covid-19 epidemic is a good illustration of the problem” that plagues China’s political system. He published the letter on WeChat, a Chinese instant messaging platform monitored by Beijing’s censors, along with a note observing that “the best way to fight for freedom of expression is for everyone to speak as if we already have freedom of speech.”
His subsequent arrest was not a surprise. “He is mentally prepared after his open letter,” a second friend told local media on condition of anonymity.
