Thread by @JChengWSJ

Wuhan's lockdown last year stopped people from leaving. But it didn't stop our colleague Chao from getting into the city, and offering an eyewitness account from inside the pandemic's first epicenter. We're really proud of Chao's work and we hope you read it. A short thread…

https://twitter.com/Chao_Deng/status/1403051590861213696

Feb. 7: "Patients packed the waiting room at Wuhan’s Tongji Hospital on Friday, intravenous drips in their arms. Medical staff wheeled patients…through the crowd. In the hallways, the sick lay curled up on cots, hooked to oxygen tanks."
@Chao_Deng @stuwoo
on.wsj.com/2Ox97by

@Chao_Deng @stuwoo Feb. 11: "Coughing badly, Zhu Chunxia sat on a sidewalk in the rain on Monday, awaiting transport to a facility where…she could be treated for the new coronavirus sweeping through this central Chinese city. The ride never came."
@Chao_Deng on.wsj.com/2HcajgB

@Chao_Deng @stuwoo Feb. 14: "Xiao Lifang has been working nearly nonstop since the outbreak…here, helping to figure out who needs to be quarantined or hospitalized, checking temperatures, and delivering food…'Everything is dumped on [us]…We’re not doctors.'"
@Chao_Deng
on.wsj.com/37pWcid

@Chao_Deng @stuwoo On Feb. 19, Beijing revoked Chao's press credentials, effectively immediately, confining her to her hotel room for more than a month before expelling her from the country—part of the first mass expulsion of foreign journalists since the Mao era.
on.wsj.com/2SCP65P

@Chao_Deng @stuwoo Chao remains a key member of our China bureau, reporting from her new home in Taipei. Since her expulsion, Chao has become our go-to authority on China's vaccines and has written great pieces on Chinese nationalism, women's rights—and Taiwanese pineapples.
on.wsj.com/3cAtUa9