Thread by @AndrewSErickson

"Today, #China faces the spread of another mysterious disease, a #coronavirus, which so far has killed 17 [+] people & infected > 540 [++]. And while Beijing’s response has improved in some ways, it has #regressed in others. It is #censoring criticism."

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"It is detaining people for spreading what it calls 'rumors.' It is suppressing info it deems alarming. Though China’s censors are busily scrubbing the Chinese internet, the... online community is registering its disappointment & alarm over Beijing’s handling of the new virus..."

CCP "has tightened its grip on the internet..media & civil society. It has deeper pockets & a greater ability to control the flow of info.[Thus], many of the media outlets, advocacy groups, activists &others who held the gov't accountable in 2003 have been silenced or sidelined."

“The system is successful in that it destroyed the people with integrity, the institutions with credibility & a society capable of narrating its own stories,” Mr Xu said.“What’s left is an arrogant power, a bunch of messy information & many fragile, isolated & angry individuals.”

"Even as..virus spread..the gov't took pains to keep up appearances..1st case was reported Dec 8..Wuhan officials insisted it was controlled & treatable. Police questioned 8..who posted on social media about the virus, saying that they had spread 'rumors.'" CONTROL INFO>>>DISEASE

"On Jan 18, 2 days before #Wuhan told the world about the severity of the outbreak, it hosted a potluck banquet attended by >40,000 families so the city could apply for a #WorldRecord for most dishes served at an event."

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PUT PROPAGANDA OVER PUBLIC HEALTH

"the day it broke the news to the world, it also announced that it was distributing 200,000 free tickets to local residents for attending festival activities during the #LunarNewYear holiday"

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TRAGIC TRANSMISSION FACILITATION BEFORE DRACONIAN QUARANTINE

"The central government backed #Wuhan’s officials. Wang Guangfa, a prominent government respiratory expert, told the state broadcaster #ChinaCentralTelevision on Jan. 10 that the Wuhan pneumonia was 'under control' and mostly a 'mild condition.'"

nytimes.com/2020/01/22/bus… #CCTV

"Eleven days later, he confirmed to Chinese media that he might have contracted the virus himself during an inspection in #Wuhan."

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"the choices made by government officials impacted [what has been] a major commercial & transportation hub [from antiquity]. [PRC's 7th largest], Wuhan is a city of 11 million people, including nearly 1 million college students from across the country."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan

"By the time it disclosed the seriousness of the outbreak, the #LunarNewYear travel season had already begun, a 40-day period during which #Chinese people take an estimated three billion trips combined."

nytimes.com/2020/01/22/bus…

No, that's not a typo: 3 BILLION trips in 40 days!

"People might have made different decisions had websites and headlines described growing worries. Instead, they traveled. On Tuesday, all five confirmed cases in Beijing were of people who traveled to #Wuhan in January for business, study or leisure."

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"Until a week ago, some people in #China called it the '#PatrioticVirus.' Cases appeared in #HongKong, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan & elsewhere in Asia. No other #Chinese city but #Wuhan reported infection cases."

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"It was not until the #HongKong news media reported over the weekend that the virus had been found in other cities did officials elsewhere come forward."

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Yet another reason why eroding "One Country, #TwoSystems" threatens people's very lives & wellbeing.

"Some critics see parallels to #SARS. In 2003, the Guangzhou-based newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily first reported the SARS outbreak. A military doctor named Jiang Yanyong came forward with what he knew. Only then did officials act."

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"Many of those brave voices in 2003 are gone. Like almost all Chinese #media outlets that were active in the 1990s and 2000s, the Southern Metropolis Daily has lost its freedom to pursue coverage that holds local governments, if not Beijing, accountable."

nytimes.com/2020/01/22/bus…

"In 2003, #PhoenixTelevision called Ms Luqiu, then a star reporter, back from Iraq to report on SARS in Beijing. She shadowed the newly appointed Beijing mayor, Wang Qishan, for a week to cover how the government dealt w the crisis..Wang later became the vice president of China."

"That kind of openness is unimaginable now. Last wk, when a group of #HongKong journalists went to the Wuhan hospital that took in most coronavirus patients, they were detained by police for a few hours. They were asked to delete their TV footage & hand in their phones & cameras"

"On Tuesday, Ms. Luqiu wrote an article for qq.com, the news site owned by the internet giant #Tencent, about the measures the #HongKong government has taken in dealing with the virus. The article was deleted 10 hours later."

nytimes.com/2020/01/22/bus…

#2019nCoV

"As for Dr. Jiang, the military doctor who became a #WhistleBlower in 2003, he has been put under periodic #house #arrest and forbidden to visit the United States to collect a #HumanRights award. He is also portrayed as a bad role model."

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#CoronaOutbreak

"A multiple-choice question posed by a test-prep school in 2017 asked about Mr. Jiang’s decision. The correct answer was B: It was wrong because it harmed the interests of the nation, the society & the community & should be subject for legal #punishment."

nytimes.com/2020/01/22/bus…

"when the government is the only source of information, wise advice and valuable clues can be lost. A local police bureau in e. Shandong province posted on the #Twitter-like social media platform #Weibo on Wednesday that it had detained four local residents who spread #rumors..."

"...that there was a suspected #coronavirus patient in the district. In that environment, others dare not speak out."

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“The authorities are sending a signal, which is that only the government agencies can talk about the #epidemic,” Yu Ping, a former #SouthernMetropolisDaily reporter, wrote on his personal blog. “All other people should just shut up.”

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“It’s not public disclosure,” Mr. Yu added. “It’s a naked information monopoly.”

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#THREAD