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Local Government: After Announcing Unlocking the City, Qianjiang Reverted Back to Lockdown

Qianjiang City, Hubei Province is 100 miles away from Wuhan with a population of 1 million. Starting on January 17, 2020, it stopped all entertainment activities in the city  and became the first city in Hubei and also in China to implement certain “lockdown” measures. As a result, the infection count in the city was the second lowest among all cities in Hubei Province. As of March 10, it had an accumulation of 198 cases (including 179 cured and 9 deaths).

On March 10, the Qianjiang Novel Coronavirus Epidemic Prevention and Control Command Center issued Order No 26 stating that the city would resume normal production and life in a few days. All traffic checkpoints would be removed, all public transportation would resume, and all companies would resume production.

Many media covered the story and praised the city.

However, on March 11, the Command Center issued Order No 27, announcing the cancellation Order No 26 and that the city would continue strict traffic control and people control.

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Stability Control: Facial Recognition Even If Wearing a Face Mask

As almost every Chinese has been wearing a face mask amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus, Beijing has been actively working on enhancing its capability to monitor people’s faces.

Hanwang Technology Co, a high-tech intelligent pattern recognition company headquartered in Beijing, announced that it has developed a new facial recognition technology to use against people who are behind face masks. The company started the project in January and finished it in about a month.

Hanwang claimed a 95 percent accuracy against people wearing face masks and 99.5 percent accuracy against people without face masks.

Hanwang offers two products based on this technology. One is a single channel product that can be used at the entrance of an office building. The other is a multi-channel recognition system that can be connected with multiple monitoring cameras; it can identify each face instantly from a group of over 30 people.

The primary customer for these products is the Ministry of Public Security.

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“World Leader”: Beijing Released a Documentary “The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan”

China Global Television Network (CGTN), a television outlet that the United States defined as a foreign mission for promoting the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) propaganda, recently released a documentary in English “The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan.”

According to CCTV, this 33-minutes-long documentary covered the development of the novel coronavirus’ from its rapid outbreak in Wuhan through its gradually being brought under control. It fully covered each major measure the Chinese government took under the CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping’s direct leadership; recorded the great sacrifices of the medical staff members; and it depicted the determination of Wuhan’s citizens, including community workers, volunteers, and the delivery staff, to fight the epidemic.

On February 28, CGTN broadcasted it on the CGTN’s English channel and posted it on CGTN’s website, mobile apps, and social media accounts on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. By March 4, the documentary had a viewership of 16.89 million, with 1.46 million views from YouTube and 1.16 million from Facebook. 165 TV channels and new media platforms in 21 foreign countries and regions utilized the video.

The CCTV article stated, “As an English documentary with story and depth, ‘The Lockdown: One Month in Wuhan’ used the format that Westerners are accustomed to, to describe a touching epidemic-fighting story of the medical staff and of normal Wuhan citizens.”

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Leadership: Xi Jinping’s Fake Wuhan Show

Xi Jinping visited Wuhan on March 10. He had a tele-conference with the medical staff working at the Huoshenshan Hospital and also visited a local community.

Radio France International reported that Xi’s visit to the local community, the East Lake Courtyard Community, was a fake show.

Postings on social media reported that police officers came to residents’ homes and sat on the balconies, to prevent residents from watching Xi’s visit, leaving the apartment, or shouting from the apartment. A posting on a social media group of the East Lake Courtyard Community was an “Emergency Notice” to the First Unit and Second Unit of the 29th Building in the community. The notice said, “Today, the Wuhan Police Department will send police officers to enter each home on or above the 9th floor for a security check. They will stay inside the home for an hour. Police officers will wear protection uniforms and disinfect themselves in advance. Everyone please support the work of the police.”

The Wuhan police did this because when Sun Chunlan, the Vice Premier, visited a residential neighborhood on March 5, people shouted “Fake” to greet her. (See Chinascope posting: Hiding Information: Residents Shouted “Fake” When Sun Chunlan Visited a Residential Neighborhood)

Another video on Internet showed that Xi Jinping’s car slowly entered into the community. Then Xi came out. A female voice in the video asked, “Can we shout now?” No response. A little bit later, an official came to greet Xi and raised his arm to signal the start. The female voice asked again, “Can we shout now?” Another female voice answered, “Yes.” Then came the two females’ voices shouting, “Hello Chairman Xi! Hello Chairman Xi! Go Wuhan! Go China!” Xi answered, “Good, Hello!” Netizens pointed out that these two women could have been actresses staged to play residents there.

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Leadership: Political Signs of Xi Jinping’s Visit to Wuhan

Xi Jinping visited Wuhan on March 10. He had a tele-conference with the medical staff working at the Huoshenshan Hospital and he also visited a local community.

Radio Free Asia published a few commentators’ views on Xi’s trip. According to their comments, Xi’s visit to Wuhan indicated that Xi thinks the fight against the epidemic has come to a point where he could claim victory for the first phase and take credit for his leadership. It is time to convert the plague to his personal victory and deal with any news against Xi that is spreading in China. Xi probably wants to use his Wuhan trip to get rid of the criticism, both from within the Chinese Communist Party and outside of the party.

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World Outbreak: Four Countries Account for 93 Percent of World’s Infections

The novel coronavirus outbreak is rapidly spreading around the world. The virus has spread to over 100 countries, with a total of more than 110,000 confirmed infection cases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that, among the 110,000 cases, 93 percent of them come from four countries (China, Italy, Iran, and South Korea).

According to Worldometers’ statistics, on March 11, China had 80,778 cases, Italy had 10,149, Iran had 8,042, and South Korea had 7,755. The fifth country on the list, France, has 1,784, about 6,000 lower than South Korea, the country in the fourth position .

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Hiding Information: Wuhan Newspaper Said Doctor Reported Infection Cases in December and Authorities Took Action Immediately

[Editor’s Note: People are trying to find out who is responsible for the government’s not taking action to prevent or contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan until January 20. Although the SARS-like pneumonia cases had already been reported to the local government and the central government in late December and early January, both the Hubei government and the Wuhan local government, as well as the Central government each tried to clear their own name and to hold the other parties accountable.]

Changjiang Daily, the newspaper under the Wuhan Party Committee, represented that Dr. Zhang Xijian first reported the pneumonia cases to her hospital leadership and then to the Hubei and Wuhan Health Commissions, which then took proper actions.

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Central Commission for Disciplinary Inspection website republished the story.

According to this story, Dr. Zhang works at the Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine (TCM-WM) Integrated Hospital.

  • On December 26, 2019, Dr. Zhang encountered four patients with pneumonia that was different from other viral pneumonia.
  • On December 27, she reported the cases to the hospital leadership. The hospital immediately reported the cases to the Jianghan District Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of Wuhan City.
  • On December 28 and 29, the hospital received three more patients. Out of the seven cases, four were linked to the South China Seafood market.  Dr. Zhang reported to the hospital leadership again and suggested that there be a joint diagnosis involving multiple departments of the hospital.
  • On December 29, the hospital held a joint diagnosis. They also found two more similar cases at Tongji Hospital and Wuhan Union Hospital, also linked to the South China Seafood Market. So the hospital reported the cases to both the Hubei Provincial Health Commission and the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission.
  • On December 29, both the Hubei and the Wuhan Health Commissions immediately responded, requesting the Wuhan CDC, the Jianghan District CDC, and the Jinyintan Hospital that is specialized in treating infectious diseases go to the TCM-WM Integrated Hospital.
  • On the evening of December 29, Jinyintan Hospital came and transferred six patients over. One patient refused to go, so he stayed with Dr. Zhang and was cured and released on January 7.

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Local Government: Hubei People Struggle to Live in Other Provinces

Apple Daily, a Hong Kong media, reported that people from Hubei Province are experiencing difficulties trying to live in other provinces after the outbreak of the coronavirus, as local governments have carried out efforts to gather and quarantine people who came out of Hubei.

Xiao Jun, a Hubei citizen who came to work at Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province a year ago and has stayed there since then, has been unable to find a job, simply because he is from Hubei. In the Hubei folks WeChat group that he joined, which has over 200 members, people shared their experiences of not being able to find a job in other provinces. They have also not been able to go home either (because their hometowns are locked down); many people can’t find a place to live and thus have to stay homeless at train station or on the street. Someone also shared a picture with the WeChat group: an industry region in Guangzhou erected a sign that said “Cars and People from Hubei Are not Allowed to Enter.”

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