The costs of stability at all costs: On January 1, well before the Wuhan #coronaravirus spread en masse and more than a week before the virus was identified, the Wuhan police announced that it had dealt with eight people for spreading untruthful information about "Wuhan viral
pneumonia" in accordance with law. Official news reports of the time say that the Wuhan police wanted to remind people it would be unrelenting in dealing with those who concoct and spread rumors (xinhuanet.com/2020-01/01/c_1…). This news item was prominently carried on
China Central TV and major outlets as well as online. It had a chilling effect on those who saw the early signs of a then emerging epidemic. This crackdown was clearly part of a coordinated effort by the Wuhan leadership.
Earlier today the Wuhan police tried to lighten the effect of its earlier action by saying that the eight were given "education and criticism" but were "not detained" (yicai.com/news/100483362…). It also revealed that the eight had shared information with others that various
Wuhan hospitals had SARS cases. It turns out that all eight were doctors; at least one of them had contracted the #coronavirus while treating patients. A commentator from the Supreme People's Court weighed in that the eight were giving their opinion to the best of their
knowledge. After all, the #coronavirus was only formally declared identified on Jan 9, 2020. Imagine the Wuhan authorities had acted on the information from these professional doctors to contain the emerging epidemic rather than punishing them. Alas, this is one more example of
the growing costs of the Chinese leadership's preoccupation with stability maintenance. For background on this: Dali L. Yang, “China’s Troubled Quest for Order: Leadership, Organization and the Contradictions of the Stability Maintenance Regime,” daliyang.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/yang-c….
Dr. Li Wenliang, one of the eight medical professionals who were admonished by police in in late Dec 2019, became infected with the #coronavirus tells his experience and his own battle with the #2019-nCoV pneumonia. sixthtone.com/news/1005150/r…
In a related development, Sixth Tone had prepared a story on the eight earlier this month but that story was quashed by China's censors.
Poignant case of how earlier prevention efforts could have saved lives, including the life of Yang Jun. Early missteps and state secrecy in China probably allowed the coronavirus to spread farther and faster washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/…
Dr. Li from his hospital bed.
