Widespread outcry over death of coronavirus doctor
They posted videos of the Les Misérables song, “Do You Hear the People Sing.” They invoked article No. 35 of China’s constitution, which stipulates freedom of speech. They tweeted a phrase from the poem “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”
The Chinese public has staged what amounts to an online revolt after the death of a doctor, Li Wenliang, who tried to warn of a mysterious virus that has since killed at least 722 people in China, infected 34,546 and forced the government to corral many of the country’s 1.4 billion people.
Since late Thursday, people from different backgrounds, including government officials, prominent business figures and ordinary online users, have posted messages expressing their grief at the doctor’s death and their anger over his silencing by police after sharing his knowledge about the new coronavirus. It has prompted a nationwide soul-searching under an authoritarian government that allows for little dissent.
“I haven’t seen my WeChat timeline filled with so much forlornness and outrage,” Xu Danei, founder of a social media analytics company, wrote on the messaging platform WeChat.
“Tonight is a monumental moment for our collective conscience,” he wrote.
Although there are some outspoken dissidents in China, their numbers have dwindled as the Communist Party under leader Xi Jinping has cracked down repeatedly on lawyers, journalists and businesspeople in the past seven years.
In this highly censored society, it’s rare for ordinary people to make demands and openly express anger toward the government. It’s even more rare for officials and leaders of big corporations to show emotions that can be interpreted as discontent with the state.
After speculation over Li’s death began swirling online Thursday evening, the Communist Party’s propaganda machine went into full gear, trying to control the message. But it didn’t seem as effective as it had in the past.
The outpouring of messages online from sad, infuriated and grieving people was too much for the censors. The government even seemed to recognize the enormity of the country’s emotion, dispatching a team to investigate what it called “issues related to Dr. Li Wenliang that were reported by the public,” although without specifics.
For many people in China, the doctor’s death shook loose pent-up anger and frustration at how the government mishandled the situation by not sharing information earlier and by silencing whistle-blowers. It also seemed, to those online, that the government hadn’t learned lessons from previous crises, continuing to quash online criticism and investigative reports that provide vital information.
Some users of Weibo, China’s Twitterlike social media platform, are saying the doctor’s death resonated because he was an ordinary person who was forced to admit to wrongdoing for doing the right thing.
Li was reprimanded by police after he shared concerns about the virus in a social messaging app with medical school classmates Dec. 30. Three days later, police compelled him to sign a statement that his warning constituted “illegal behavior.”
The doctor eventually went public with his experiences and gave interviews to help the public better understand the unfolding epidemic.
“He didn’t want to become a hero. But for those of us in 2020, he had reached the upper limit of what we can imagine a hero would do,” one Weibo post read. The post is one of many that users say they wrote out of shame and guilt for not standing up to an authoritarian government, as Li did.
Many people posted a variation of a quote: “He who holds the firewood for the masses is the one who freezes to death in wind and snow.” The original version of the saying came from Chinese writer Murong Xuecun about seven years ago when he and some friends were raising money for the families of political prisoners.