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Thread: Chinese people are turning on the government as the coronavirus outbreak spirals

  1. #1

    Chinese people are turning on the government as the coronavirus outbreak spirals

    #NewYear'sEveInICU was the top trend on Chinese social media Friday on what is usually the most festive day of the year.
    According to the Guardian, the gallows-humor hashtag topped the Twitter-like Weibo platform as China entered the Lunar New Year, a grim reminder of a fast-spreading viral outbreak.
    Novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV as it is known scientifically, has killed 41, sickened nearly 1,300, and spread to 12 countries.


    The trend is also an example of frustrations bubbling over on China's social media, including the microblogging site Weibo and the app WeChat.
    Those frustrations are being lobbed at local government, despite the censorship regime which makes criticizing anybody in power a risky business.
    "Can you please send a responsible leader to Hubei?" reads a comment on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo, the Guardian reported, seemingly calling for China's central Communist Party to intervene from Beijing.
    The comments are a sign that the government's quarantine of 35 million people across 12 cities could backfire, as both the healthy and the infected remain cut off from the outside.
    "The first and golden rule of public health is you have to gain the trust of the population," said Lawrence O. Gostin, a professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University who spoke to The Washington Post. He said the extreme measure is instead likely to "drive the epidemic underground."


    Wuhan, where a majority of the cases have been located, has been quarantined since Thursday. Travel in or out is prohibited to stop the spread, and authorities have made it mandatory to wear protective masks. Eleven more cities were added to the lock-down on Friday.
    Wuhan's mayor admitted this week that initial "warnings were not sufficient" — and understated acknowledgement that the early phase of the outbreak was botched.
    Officials initially said the virus could not be transmitted from human to human. Screenings were also not immediately put into place.


    The virus is a dangerous challenge for China's leaders, historian Maura Cunningham told the Guardian: "The coronavirus is a problem for the Chinese Communist party because the CCP has historically not handled epidemics and other large-scale disasters well.
    "The party has shown a knee-jerk tendency to clamp down on information and not be forthcoming with accurate statistics."


    The New York Times cited multiple instances of frustration posted to Sina Weibo: "I hope the central government can take over before dawn," one commenter wrote. "It's almost like anarchy."
    "Wuhan's party secretary and governor cannot soothe the people's anger," another wrote.
    The perceived incompetence of local officials is contrasted unfavorably with support for medical professionals on the front line.
    In response to an image shared by doctors, The Times reported that one commenter said, "The Wuhan government is not worthy of such good medical staff."

    More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/chinese-p...060456602.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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  3. #2
    A few hours ago, the New York Times published an interesting story about how China's population, known for assiduously self-censoring their speech online, is refusing to be silent in the face of the rapidly accelerating novel coronavirus. The deluge of critical posts, along with clever tricks to dodge censors, are making it nearly impossible for Beijing to control the narrative on the mainland.
    Earlier, we mentioned how doctors, nurses and residents in Wuhan have demanded that their "useless" mayor follow through on an offer to resign for sluggishness in confronting the outbreak. But that's not all: though reports claimed Beijing made an effort to remove horrifying videos of the situation on the ground in Wuhan (videos that showed what appeared to be dead bodies lying in hospital hallways), according to NYT, the censors have now been completely overwhelmed.

    Some posters evade censors by referred to President Xi as "Trump", or by comparing the outbreak to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

    137 medical personnel head for Hubei from north China's Shanxi pic.twitter.com/nxSe01dyEO
    — CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) January 27, 2020
    Public anger over the handling of the outbreak has been compounded by the cancellation of the LNY holiday. Internet critics posted scathing criticisms of public officials over often minor slights, like when officials in Wuhan wore their face masks incorrectly during a press conference.
    After Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang offered to resign over his handling of the outbreak, a commenter replied: "If the virus is fair, then please don't spare this useless person," according to the NYT.
    After the Hubei Gov. Wang Xiaodong delivered a news briefing on Sunday, he was brutally mocked for twice misstating the number of face masks that the province would produce to help fight the epidemic. A photo of the press conference that circulated online showed one of Wang's partners didn't cover his nose properly with the mask, inviting another torrent of derision.

    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...virus-response
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  4. #3
    Yes, I'm sure the people in whose political interest it is to blame the Chinese for everything are delighted about all this.

    ...a useful distraction from the US budget, budget deficit, and debt, among other things.

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Yes, I'm sure the people in whose political interest it is to blame the Chinese for everything are delighted about all this.

    ...a useful distraction from the US budget, budget deficit, and debt, among other things.
    Among other distractions which reminds me maybe the Trump admin should worry more on the borders? those walls or fences are still not finished....Yet somehow they have a billion and trillion more for regime changes and proxy wars and wars they will not able to win.

  6. #5
    The good news is that the Corona Virus wont last long, because it was made in China....
    Pfizer Macht Frei!

    Openly Straight Man, Danke, Awarded Top Rated Influencer. Community Standards Enforcer.


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    Except as to the rule of appointment, the United States have an indefinite discretion to make requisitions for men and money; but they have no authority to raise either by regulations extending to the individual citizens of America.

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Danke View Post
    The good news is that the Corona Virus wont last long, because it was made in China....
    I'll take Lyme with my Corona.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    ...a useful distraction from the US budget, budget deficit, and debt, among other things.
    Not to mention our own flu season statistics, which don't get that much attention:

    15,000,000 – 21,000,000 flu illnesses

    7,000,000 – 10,000,000 flu medical visits

    140,000 – 250,000 flu hospitalizations

    8,200 – 20,000 flu deaths


  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by phill4paul View Post
    I'll take Lyme with my Corona.
    ...said the genetically modified mosquito.
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner



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  11. #9
    In a sign that the Communist Party may have overplayed its hand, more videos depicting violent clashes between Chinese citizens and police have surfaced on social media.
    福建大抓捕 pic.twitter.com/T6k8SlDbIe
    — 思雪 (@a524952) January 28, 2020
    #28Ene #Coronavirus #China ���� la población de #Wuhan tratando de huir de la zona de cuarentena es repelida por la policía.#Coronovirus #Coronavirus #Virus #WuhanVirus pic.twitter.com/6c5fnsHbJL - @Finanzas_Time
    — Reporte Ya (@ReporteYa) January 28, 2020
    One video, likely taken somewhere in Hubei Province (where the most strict travel bans are being enforced), shows a car ramming a roadblock.
    * * *


    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ath-toll-soars
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by buck000 View Post
    Not to mention our own flu season statistics, which don't get that much attention:

    15,000,000 – 21,000,000 flu illnesses

    7,000,000 – 10,000,000 flu medical visits

    140,000 – 250,000 flu hospitalizations

    8,200 – 20,000 flu deaths

    The routine seasonal flu in the US has a mortality rate of about 0.1% (the figures you give are very similar, slightly less).

    This new virus, by conservative estimates, has a mortality rate of 3%, 30x higher.

  13. #11
    At an R0 of 2, the entire world would be infected in 20 iterations of the transmission.

    At an R0 of 3, it would be 13.

    The average incubation period is something like a week, so let's use that as the average transmission period.

    That means approximately global coverage in 91 -140 days.

    If that happened, and 3% of infected died, that would be around 210 million dead.

    ...not saying that's going to happen, but nothing so far seems to be stopping it, not even the totally unprecedented quarantine efforts in China.

  14. #12
    The research has once again moved back the timeline of when senior Chinese leaders knew about the outbreak in Wuhan, suggesting that they waited longer to act, and longer to inform the international community, than they had led the world to believe. The claim appeared in a top American medical journal.
    From Nikkei Asian Review:
    The deadly new coronavirus from Wuhan was spreading from person to person as early as mid-December, weeks before China officially confirmed such transmission, government-funded Chinese researchers report in a top American medical journal.
    The paper in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzes data on the first 425 confirmed cases in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated.
    "On the basis of this information, there is evidence that human-to-human transmission has occurred among close contacts since the middle of December 2019," it reads. The paper notes that seven health care workers contracted the virus between Jan. 1 and Jan. 11 - significant evidence of human-to-human transmission.
    The findings sharply contrast with the accounts of Wuhan health authorities who had maintained until mid-January that there was "no clear evidence" that the virus could be passed among humans. Officials also claimed Jan. 11 that no health care workers had been infected.
    But...but...but...the local authorities in Wuhan said they didn't have evidence of person to person transmission until mid-January! That's increasingly difficult to believe, seeing as the signs were clearly there after the first wave of patients was diagnosed and examined and interrogated.
    Research suggests fewer than 60% of the early virus-carriers had been directly linked to the seafood market. The rest were associates, friends and relatives of the people who had. That, right there, is evidence of human-to-human transmission - and this was known as early as mid-December.
    Some frustrated Chinese have chosen to defy censors and lash out on Chinese social media networks like Weibo.
    Many of the paper's authors work for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and local counterparts. Many were among the first batch of medical experts to have entered Wuhan for on-the-ground inspections, developing "a tailored surveillance protocol to identify potential cases" on Jan. 3.
    "They all knew," a user on the Weibo microblogging platform said. "They just didn't say, but lied to us."
    "If only they could have told people earlier, we could have taken better preventive measures, and the virus would not have spread this fast," another wrote.


    Instead of embracing transparency, Beijing back in December arrested several researchers for "spreading false rumors" about the severity of the outbreak. Of course, their warnings have since been realized.
    Some Weibo users have demanded that the authors of the paper expose whoever is responsible for this.
    "I'm demanding an explanation from the paper's authors," wrote one Weibo user. "You clearly knew about people-to-people transmission three weeks earlier than the public, but did you do what you were supposed to do?"
    The Ministry of Science and Technology issued a statement on Thursday urging researchers in the country to "not devote their efforts to writing essays before completing the task of combating the novel coronavirus."
    Some social media users in China pointed to another possibility.
    "Perhaps the researchers did not have a way to share their findings, and publishing it in a scientific journal was their last resort to warn the public," one WeChat user wrote on a group discussion.
    In December, eight people were detained for "spreading false rumors" as they discussed the spread of a then-unknown coronavirus on the internet. The eight people were later identified as doctors working in Wuhan, which sparked a public outcry over government censorship.
    When this is all said and done, we doubt the Chinese people will forget how their government lied not only to them, but to the world.

    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ed-about-human
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  15. #13
    Coronavirus has brought normal life to a virtual halt across the country. Entire cities and major factory hubs are on lockdown as 50 million people or more, are confined to their homes.
    Every day the lockdown continues, public anger grows and could soon be at a tipping point where riots breakout.
    元朗西地铁站连农墙有黑帮袭击在场的市民,包括大师等几个人受伤。有几位区议员也都去了现场。 请大家关注!pic.twitter.com/oldBBPiq9V
    — Guang Dang (@ftr7vm) January 31, 2020

    Millions are outraged that virus masks and other medical supplies are in short quantities, and how there's no early detection test of the virus nor vaccine.
    As anxieties rise and citizens channel their anger towards authorities for failing to keep the population safe, state broadcaster CCTV ran a rare segment placing some of the coronavirus blame on the head of the health commission of Huanggang, a city that has a similar population size as New York City, has the second-largest number of coronavirus cases.
    China's National Broadcaster CCTV aired this: the director of Health Commission in Huanggang city, the 2nd most serious affected city in the #coronavirus Hubei, barely knew anything about the spread and local treatment situation. This angers people in China. #news #journalism pic.twitter.com/wrjSyw1CfW
    — Yubin Du (@du_yubin) January 30, 2020
    CCTV blasted Huanggang's health commission Tang Zhihong and head of the local center for disease control and prevention Chen Mingxing, who were both unable to provide an accurate account of coronavirus cases, deaths, and status of hospitals. The segment has so far been viewed 130 million times since it was posted on China's Weibo on Thursday, a sign of the increasing frustration among citizens.
    "I don't know, I'm unclear," Tang said when asked how many sick people there were.
    "I only know how many beds there are. Don't ask me how many people are being treated."
    A top comment on the Weibo video said:
    "Our taxpayers' money goes to support this group of good-for-nothing."
    It was revealed Friday that Huanggang fired Tang, mostly because the CCTV video on Weibo got so much traction.


    The city sacking the top public health official has yet to relieve public anger. The health department has reported that as many as 500 confirmed coronavirus cases have been reported in the city, with 12 deaths (Thursday figures). The number is likely to exponentially rise as local hospitals have run out of capacity to serve sick citizens, test kits for the virus are in short supplies, and there's still no vaccine to treat the sick.
    "Huanggang is one of the most affected places by the novel coronavirus and local health officials are like this, so scary," said one Weibo user.

    "These officials' attitude and capacity astonished me…How many officials like them are there in Hubei? They should be reported," read another comment on Weibo.

    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ocal-officials
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  16. #14
    Wish I could take credit for this reply:



    Atropa Belladonna

    1h

    It's not deadly enough to be usefull to mankind.

    Reply

    We're being governed ruled by a geriatric Alzheimer patient/puppet whose strings are being pulled by an elitist oligarchy who believe they can manage the world... imagine the utter maniacal, sociopathic hubris!

  17. #15
    A local from Wuhan City videotaped herself lashing out at the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for the way it handled the coronavirus outbreak that has killed scores of people in China, including her own relative(s). The video was recorded on Jan. 26 and has since gone viral on Chinese social media.
    There are several similar videos circulating on Chinese social media, and this woman is so far the only one who eschewed wearing a mask despite the fact that revealing her face could compromise her identity. But she did not reveal her name in the video.
    Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, is the epicenter of the deadly novel coronavirus outbreak.

    Speaking in a local dialect, she asked angrily, “Chinese Communist Party, when are you going to step down? You promised us that Chinese people will enjoy ‘moderate prosperity’ in 2020, but what have we attained [from you] so far? We lost our relative(s) [because of you]!”
    Because there is no plural form in the Chinese language, it is difficult to determine if she has lost more than one relative.


    The term “moderate prosperity” has been used in CCP propaganda since the 2000s, when Hu Jintao was leader of China. At the end of 2019, regime propaganda chief Wang Huning launched a nationwide campaign proclaiming that the country’s 2020 plan is to “secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.”
    “Tell me, what does it mean to achieve ‘moderate prosperity’?” the woman said. “What does ‘moderate prosperity’ mean to us when people have lost their lives? What on earth are you doing? What do we need such a government for? I beg you, please go away! Step Down! We need good leaders who can help us live a good life. We don’t need such a corrupt government.”
    She pointed out that China’s economic prosperity is an illusion and the coronavirus outbreak could put more pressure on the economy. In fact, China’s GDP growth rate of 6 percent in the second half of 2019 was the slowest rate of growth since 1991.
    “The soaring home prices and high cost of living have caused hardships for Chinese residents. And now so many people are dying. Everyone will get to see the economic bubble burst,” she said.
    “You should bear the consequences of your actions. Do not implicate us ordinary folk. Now we are bearing the brunt of it, and we are being sacrificed for what you have been doing!”
    She then asked, “What on earth are you? Are you humans or devils?”
    Her video has been shared by many Chinese Twitter and Facebook users. Followers of her video highly praised her tirade. Some said they particularly liked her last question, saying “What a great question, asking Party officials if they are ‘humans or devils’—it is right to the point.”
    Several followers commented, “Do not beg the CCP to step down. Overthrow the CCP.”
    One of them said, “I heard people say the CCP is on the brink of collapse. Now I really believe it is true.”


    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/health/are...ives-die-virus
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  18. #16
    Coming soon to a China near you?

    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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  20. #17
    Chinese authorities have been accused of leaving people to ‘starve and die’ after shocking videos emerged of police barricading families into their homes to stop the spread of coronavirus. Footage sent to Metro.co.uk shows masked men nailing huge metal bars over the doors and windows of people feared to be infected with the deadly disease. In one, a woman can be heard screaming and pleading as uniformed officers lock her inside. A sign outside her sealed off door reads: ‘This family came back from Wuhan. Stay away, no contact’.

    Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/02/wuhan...9/?ito=cbshare
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  21. #18
    Footage of government officials in Wuhan appearing to take face masks intended for health workers battling the highly infectious coronavirus has fuelled a growing wave of anger over how Chinese authorities have handled the outbreak.
    Images of medical staff making protective equipment out of rubbish bags, sleeping in hospitals, and crying in frustration and exhaustion have dominated Chinese social media over the last two weeks, inspiring an outpouring of sympathy and donations of supplies.

    A video posted by Beijing News on Sunday appeared to show government workers taking some of those donated supplies. A statement from the Wuhan government said that personnel attending a meeting on emergency supplies on Saturday had “received masks and other related protective supplies” from China’s Red Cross, which is overseeing donations.
    “We will further standardise the collection, storage, and distribution of protective gear for frontline workers … Thank you to the media for their attention and supervision,” the statement said, according to images of it posted by Beijing News.
    Other photos showed officials wearing specialised N95 respirator masks in a meeting with doctors who wore surgical masks.

    Online commentators were quick to criticise the statement and footage, generating more than 2m views for comments with the hashtag “Wuhan government responds to taking personnel face masks”.
    One user wrote: “These supplies are for the doctors, not the government.” Another said: “They are still using this completely insincere bureaucratic way of talking to the people? Disappointed.” Another: “Shameless … Have some dignity. The whole country is watching.”

    Others pointed out the privileges of officials over the general public. Across China, people have struggled to buy masks and other protective equipment. A Weibo user posted under the video: “If you can’t buy masks, where do you think ordinary citizens go to buy them?”

    More at: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/20...-outbreak-mask
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  22. #19
    Here's how bad the shortages of critical supplies like facemasks have gotten in China: A city with only eight confirmed virus cases has provoked an outpouring of public rage by stealing a shipment of facemasks bound for another city, which has many more patients infected with the virus.
    The government of Dali City, situated in the southwest province of Yunnan, ordered the "emergency requisition", according to state media reports. Hospitals, towns and cities across China have been scrambling to get their hands on whatever medical supplies they can as the outbreak drains resources, sparking a country-wide shortage as the number of confirmed cases nears 30,000 (with the real number still suspected of being much higher).
    The masks stolen by Dali were on their way to the city of Chongqing. When Chongqing told Dali to give the masks back, the government replied that it was too late, and that the 598 masks had already been distributed to its citizens.
    That didn't sit well with Chongqing, whose government pitched a fit, igniting the backlash on Chinese social media.

    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ment-facemasks
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  23. #20
    Following the death of a doctor Li Wenliang, a whistleblower who was censored for raising alarms about the Wuhan coronavirus in its early stages, Chinese citizens took to social media to express their grief — and demand for an apology and more free speech from the Chinese government.
    The announcement of Li's death also came amid conflicting statements in which state media reported that he had died, then that he was still alive on life support, and then again that he had died. The inconsistent reporting related to his death ignited outrage among citizens, who expressed frustration about the credibility of information from state media outlets.
    In the wake of his Li's death, Chinese citizens have accused authorities of trying to control public opinion online by censoring social media posts critical of the Chinese government and how they've handled the coronavirus.


    "We are not allowed to mourn for Dr. Li Wenliang. We are not allowed to ask for liberty of speech. Our words has been deleted. And our mouths has been silenced," a Chinese user tweeted.
    The Chinese government has censored protests in the wake of Li's death

    As rumors spread of Li's death throughout Thursday evening and Friday morning, three hashtags went viral online seeking justice for the whistleblower doctor: "The Wuhan government owes Li Wenliang an apology," "I want freedom of speech," and "We want freedom of speech." The hashtags were seen by millions of users on a Chinese social media platform called Weibo before they disappeared without a trace, the South China Morning Post reported.
    According to Nectar Gan, a reporter for CNN International, the hashtag "I want freedom of speech" had 1.8 million views around 5 a.m. before the entire phrase was censored from Chinese social media platforms. BBC also reported that "hundreds of thousands" of comments related to Li's death have been completely wiped, complying with government demands to censor politically sensitive content.


    In the country where political dissent is often stifled and punished, the clamorous calls from citizens demanding accountability and change from the Chinese government amounts to an online revolt. One Chinese citizen compared the online dissent to the demonstrations made by Chinese students in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Gan reported.
    "The last time so many people had been awakened was 1989. I want freedom of speech," a user wrote in a now-deleted post under the censored "I want freedom of speech" hashtag.
    Despite attempts by authorities to quiet the political dissent, other Chinese citizens are encouraging each other to continue speaking up online.

    More at: https://news.yahoo.com/next-tiananme...184331042.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  24. #21
    Prominent activist Ventus Lau stood outside a restaurant last week, handing out surgical masks and asking recipients to shout pro-democracy slogans -- including the popular rallying cry “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our times!”For Lau, who has organized some of the biggest anti-government protests since they began last June, the demonstrations are on hold as fear of a new coronavirus in neighboring China keeps the city’s 7.4 million residents avoiding large crowds. But he says frustration over the government’s handling of the public health crisis will fuel even more support for the protest movement after the virus scare subsides.
    “It’s hard to separate the protests and the epidemic -- they are in the same vein,” said Lau, who like other protest organizers sees the disease as a new front in the broader struggle for more democracy. “The battle against the virus has helped us see the government’s incompetence and the failures of our system.”


    The broader pause has prompted protesters to reassess their tactics to meet their key demands, including an independent inquiry into police abuses and meaningful elections. That has been on display in the past few weeks with the rise of pro-democracy unions, including one by medical workers calling for the city to seal off the mainland border, as well as organizing ahead of September elections for Hong Kong’s powerful Legislative Council.
    Hong Kong’s Striking Health Workers Pose New Threat to Beijing
    Many in the protest movement are also registering voters for the city’s so-called “functional constituencies,” seats in the legislature allotted to industry groups, according to veteran activist and former professor Joseph Cheng.
    “This is going to be a very important aspect of the movement -- you can’t organize large-scale protests activities because people obviously have to stay home” amid the outbreak, Cheng said. But he said the new limitations it imposed wouldn’t stop the movement.
    “The resentment certainly has been building and spreading,” he said. “People are trying to find ways to express anger against the government despite the virus.”

    The current outbreak -- and reports that it was covered up by Communist Party officials -- has struck a deep chord with many in Hong Kong, where the protests were driven by a deep distrust of China. The city also has vivid memories of Beijing’s cover-up of 2003’s outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which killed almost 300 people in Hong Kong and crippled its economy.

    More at: https://news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-pro...091917546.html
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  25. #22
    Earlier today we highlighted the aggressive censorship that is underway in China to keep "control of the narrative." Sadly, the citizens that were charged with trying to keep "control of the people" were potentially treated even worse as The Epoch Times reports, thanks to a lack of information (or perhaps withholding) from Beijing, thousands of soldiers and officers of the People's Liberation Army, as well as police have been diagnosed with the deadly virus and are currently under quarantine.

    It is reported that dozens of military and law enforcement have been diagnosed with the new virus, and thousands are being quarantined.
    A staff member at the Central Theater General Hospital (Hankou Hospital) in Wuhan confirmed armed police officers were hospitalized.
    Among them, 1,500 Chinese soldiers and 1,000 armed police are being quarantined, and China Human Rights and Democracy Information Center, headquartered in Hong Kong, reported on February 10 that 10 CCP soldiers and 15 armed police have been diagnosed with the new virus in Hubei province.
    The Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital (Hainan) Hospital in Sanya is preparing to test 3,000 people for new virus pneumonia samples.
    300 armed police were isolated to a training site of the Hubei Provincial Corps of the Armed Police.
    An epidemic has emerged in the Chinese Navy. After a serviceman of the Navy Submarine Force in Sanya, Hainan, was diagnosed with Covid-19, 300 sailors were isolated, and training programs on nuclear submarines, scheduled to start this month, have been suspended.

    The Information Center's report confirms that many tests in recent days have shown "false negatives", and the incubation period may be as high as 24 days. Therefore, even if the test results of all personnel before the departure are "negative", there may still be people carrying the virus, and those carrying the virus are likely to be transmitted to most officers and men
    Recently, the Central Military Commission has issued 12 emergency notifications about the epidemic situation, and is enforcing strict regulations on the "leaders of epidemic work", "the epidemic situation in the camp and family areas", "isolation observation", etc.
    Alleged violations will result in disciplinary action or dismissal.
    Most critically, these diagnosed cases (and quarantines) - and who knows how many dead - are not being reported as Epoch Times reports...
    ...confidential documents stipulate that if the military's epidemic situation involves military secrets, it may not be reported to the local provincial and municipal governments. Therefore, current illnesses in the military and the armed police are not reported to the territories on the grounds of confidentiality.
    The situation among these personnel, charged with keeping order and maintaining curfews during the early days of the virus, is notably worse than it could have been thanks to Chinese Communist authorities denials and delays early on.

    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/health/ang...antined-dozens
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  26. #23
    A prominent Chinese scholar has published an article criticising the country’s leadership for failing to control the coronavirus outbreak
    that has infected almost 25,000 people around the world.


    Xu Zhangrun, a law professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, who has been under close surveillance by the authorities, blamed Communist Party leaders for putting politics ahead of the people in his strongly worded piece, which was published on several overseas Chinese-language websites this week.

    “The political system has collapsed under the tyranny, and a governance system [made up] of bureaucrats, which has taken [the party] more than 30 years to build has floundered,” he said in a reference to how reform-minded leaders sought to rebuild the country and modernise the government after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 and moved away from one-man rule to collective leadership.

    Xu was suspended from teaching at Tsinghua University in 2018, after the publication of an article in which he criticised the decision by party leaders to lift the two-term limit for presidents, allowing Xi Jinping
    to remain in office beyond his second term, which ends in 2023.

    His latest criticism came as China’s leaders and law enforcement officials warned that internet controls must be tightened to prevent the spread of rumours and misinformation.

    On Monday, Xi chaired a meeting of the Politburo Standing Committee at which it was agreed that officials must maintain a tight grip on online media and direct public opinion about “winning the war over the virus”.

    On Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Security held a meeting to remind all police officers that political security was of utmost importance in handling the outbreak.


    The police would “strike harshly” on any and all disruption by “hostile forces”, according to a report by Xinhua.

    One of Xu’s close friends confirmed on Wednesday that the professor had written the article.

    “He has already been stripped of his teaching position but he is likely to face more punishment this time,” said the person, who asked not to be named.

    “We are concerned they [the police] will take him away now that he has published this article.”


    In his latest article he said Beijing had put officials’ loyalty above competence, and filled the bureaucracy with mediocre cadres who had no motivation to perform well.

    “The mess in Hubei is only the tip of the iceberg and it’s the same with every province,” he said.

    During the early stages of the outbreak, China’s authorities maintained tight control over the disclosure and sharing of information about the outbreak, and officials made repeated assurances to the public that there were no signs of human transmission of the coronavirus.


    But as the number of infections has soared, people have become increasingly angry and frustrated. Many have taken to social media to criticise officials, especially those in Hubei and Wuhan, for failing to publicise information about the outbreak and for mishandling the distribution of vital supplies to frontline doctors and nurses.

    Xu said also that Beijing’s crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression had made it impossible for people to raise the alarm about the outbreak.

    “All chances of public discussions have been smothered, and so was the original alarm mechanism in society,” he said in reference to the party’s deletion of social media posts it deemed critical.

    Xu did not mention Xi by name but made use of some of the informal titles by which he is known, including “the core”.


    Xu Zhangrun is not the only academic to speak out against Xi and his handling of the virus outbreak, which the World Health Organisation has declared a global health emergency.

    Prominent intellectual Xu Zhiyong also published an article on social media on Tuesday in which he urged Xi to step down for his “inability to handle major crises”.

    He cited several examples, including the China-US trade war, the anti-government protests in Hong Kong and the coronavirus outbreak.

    He also called Xi’s political ideology “confusing”, his governance model “outdated” and said he had ruined China with “exhaustive social stability maintenance measures”.

    “Seven years ago, I appealed to you to lead China to become a nation that respects democracy and the constitution, but in return I was thrown in jail for four years,” he said.

    “And now, your men are still looking for me trying to throw me back in jail again. I don’t think you are a villain, just someone who is not very smart. For the public’s sake, I’m asking you again: Step down, Mr Xi Jinping.”

    More at: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/poli...nist-party-not
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  27. #24
    As readers can probably imagine, it takes a lot to set off a genuine public furor in China, especially when the subject is critical of the government, or challenges its authority in any way.

    Yet a video depicting nurses in Gansu Province having their hair shaved off has accomplished just that, while raising serious questions about Beijing's ability to contain the public frustration over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak that spawned COVID 2019.


    In the video report, which was posted by the newspaper "Gansu Daily" - a state-run paper in Gansu to better accommodate the full-body medical gear that they will be wearing in Hubei, where they were being sent by the government.

    Viewers can watch the original video here.


    But for whatever reason, that original video triggered a severe backlash that prompted China's censors to spring into action. They took forced the Gansu paper to take the video down from its social media pages and website. Even in the US, it's difficult to find online.
    According to Quartz, the video generated comments like these, translated from Weibo (like China's Twitter) by Quartz:
    "In the video, the people who shaved the women’s heads grabbed their ponytails roughly and just started shaving their hair using electronic clippers. Are you treating them as humans or some animals waiting to be shaved? I am so angry that my mind’s gone blank," said a user (link in Chinese) on Weibo yesterday (Feb. 17), when the video started trending on the network.
    "If you didn’t tell me they were medical workers, I would have thought they were some evil criminals who were going through this serious humiliation...Even their tears are used by the authorities to try to touch the audience, making them the illustration of the spirit of collectivism," wrote Chen Mashu, an author for "Epoch Story," an account on messaging app WeChat that publishes analyses and first-person accounts of social affairs.
    China appears to be running into one of the unavoidable conflicts that arises from an authoritarian system out of step with a liberal world: In the digital age, you can't possibly keep out all of the information from outside (unless you're North Korea, and even they can't hide all of it).
    What's worse is this latest incident appears to be a propaganda stunt gone awry.
    But China doesn't want to emulate North Korea's insane level of social controls. The North Korean people are without a doubt the most heavily controlled on the planet in terms of the level of government involvement in their lives. It's a libertarian's nightmare.


    But in China, the people have a better idea of how Beijing's actions to combat the virus have been perceived, and - what's worse - that there are others across China who feel the same way about the government censorship. That is, that it contributed to the government's hesitation to publicly address the outbreak.
    As one professor says, China has "entered a different time."
    "China has entered a different time,” said Gu Su, a professor of philosophy and law at Nanjing University. "Covering positive stories while withholding the cruel facts won’t work as people can still access information from elsewhere. The propaganda department needs to reflect upon its approach."
    During the outpouring of rage and grief that followed the death of Dr. Li Wenliang, Beijing initially cracked down, before backing off, understanding that the people needed to grieve, before slyly redirecting their anger toward local officials, who ultimately paid the political price for Li's death.

    "Letting people mourn about the doctor’s death serves as a pressure valve to let off steam," said Lynette Ong, an associate professor in political science at the University of Toronto where she studies social control in China. "Still, the most sensitive posts asking for freedom of speech were censored."
    After the scapegoating of local officials, President Xi allegedly told the Politburo Standing Committee to get the word out to the state-controlled press to promote "touching stories from the front line of the virus fight." This command unleashed a wave of sappy human-interest stories in government-controlled tabloids like the Global Times.



    Still, optimistic tales of triumph over the outbreak contrast with the lived experience of roughly half the country. Some 760 million citizens are facing some form of quarantine.
    Doctors in Wuhan have repeatedly warned about the atrocious working conditions, as many continue to work despite having contracted the virus. Wuhan has more than 1,1000 medical staff, more than half of the infected hospital workers annually.
    Beijing has also staged press events with recovered patients and others to tell foreign journalists about how the virus actually "wasn't that scary" and that they received the best care available (which, of course, isn't saying much).

    More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ent-badly-awry
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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  29. #25
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment



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