Ding Xiangyang, the Deputy Chief Secretary of the State Council and a member of the Central government’s Supervision Group at Hubei Province, stated that it was Xi Jinping who ordered the Wuhan lockdown.
Ding made such statement at a press conference on February 20, 2020. Ding said, “Actually, when Vice Premier Sun Chunlan came to Wuhan on January 22, she made two decisions based on the specific direction from the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (Xi Jinping), that would be a ‘city lockdown’ and that the holiday would be extended (so people had to stay home instead of going back to work).” “It is not easy to reach a consensus with everyone at that time, but with the CCP Central’s support, we were determined to do that. No matter who said what, we were determined to do that.”
On January 27, 2020, when China Central Television (CCTV) interviewed Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang, Zhou stated that he had decided to lock down the city under the pressure in spite of people’s negative response. (See posting Leadership: Wuhan Mayor Not “Authorized” to Release Epidemic Information to the Public Before)
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