After the city of Wuhan imposed a lockdown on January 23, 2020The Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council contacted the mainland government about the option of evacuating Taiwan citizens from Wuhan. The Mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, State Council didn’t give specific response. Its spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang stated on January 28 that, “Taiwan friends have received proper care. … The Hubei Taiwan Affairs Office and the Wuhan Taiwan Affairs Office will continue to provide care and support to the Taiwan people in Hubei, especially those in Wuhan.” Continue reading →

According to “Xiakedao,” a social media account that People’s Daily operates, on February 9, 2020, Wuhan stepped up its all-out campaign to round up every single one of the four types of suspected nCov patients.

The four types are: confirmed patients, suspected patients, those in close contact with the former two, and those who have a fever.

Total of 16,739 officials and employees from agencies and enterprises directly affiliated with the city government took part in the Feb 9 roundup. They joined existing residential community work groups to comb through the entire population of around 10 million. These work groups are conducting door-to-door health checks to identify potential carriers who need be isolated.

Sun Chunlan, the female Vice Premier of China’s State Council, who called for a “people’s war” against the fast-spreading virus, gave the order on February 6. Guangming Daily, the State Council’s official newspaper, issued a commentary on February 9 saying that it was of the utmost importance to quarantine these people centrally, so that the spread of the epidemic could be stopped. The commentary also acknowledged the lack of medical supplies in Wuhan, but it claimed that over 11,000 medical staff members have been dispatched to Wuhan from across China.

It is not yet clear what the total number of these four types of people will be. Earlier reports have indicated that there is a devastating environment in the large, new quarantine facilities that were converted from stadiums or exhibition centers. Continue reading →

On February 3, 2020. Xi Jinping hosted a meeting with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee. At the meeting he stressed that they should “do a good job in propaganda education and public opinion guidance.” Such guidance should include “promoting in-depth publicity about the major decisions of the CCP Central Committee, substantially reporting the effectiveness of the joint (epidemic) prevention and control measures in different regions and different departments, vividly telling touching stories, telling the story well about China’s fight against the epidemic, and demonstrating the Chinese people’s spirit and the great power of unity and togetherness in fighting the epidemic.”

Zhang Xiaoguo, Director of the Information Bureau of the CCP Central Propaganda Department, said that the department sent 300 news reporters to Hubei Province, including the epicenter Wuhan.

The WeChat account “Reporters Station” said that the majority of these 300 reporters were from CCP central media. “Besides providing prompt, full-scale reports on the epidemic prevention and control, (they will) present positive stories on humanity to the public to strengthen the guidance of public opinion.” Continue reading →

Li Wenliang, an eye doctor in Wuhan, China, was among the eight people (all physicians in Wuhan) who warned the public about the novel coronavirus. He passed away on the night of February 6, 2020.

According to a Chinese journal, people had been in critical condition when transferred to Wuhan Central Hospital on the afternoon of February 6.

BBC Chinese reported that the official Chinese media People’s Daily and Global Times, and a more outspoken news outlet The Beijing News all reported the passing away of 34-year-old Dr. Li at 9:30 p.m. February 6. However, within two hours, all these reports were deleted and could not be found online. Chinese media claimed that Dr. Li was still under recovery.

An outpouring of grief and anger appeared on China’s social media.

In what Al Jazeera called a “political resuscitation,” the Chinese authorities gave orders after Dr. Li’s heart had stopped beating to stop the resuscitation only to calm the public’s rage.

Al Jazeera‘s report was further confirmed by the People magazine and a number of online posts that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in charge of Dr. Li’s treatment refused repeated requests from rescuing physicians to put him on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), and did it only when the higher up told them to do so. After Dr. Li’s heart stopped beating and the information was spread out, the CCP organization needed to soothe the public mourn and anger by putting the ECMO on to show they had tried everything possible and also to decide on the timing of the eventual announcement of Dr. Li’s death.

A blogger mourned on Weibo (China’s equivalent of Twitter), “Those who tell the truth are arrested for spreading rumors and those who tell nothing but lies become the leaders.” Continue reading →

Xinhua reported that on February 3, 2020, Wuhan built three modular hospitals (called “square-cabin hospitals” in Chinese) at the Wuhan International Exhibition Center, Hongshan Stadium and the Wuhan Living Room Exhibition Center. These hospitals are to treat patients with light symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

Another 20 modular hospitals are being shipped to Wuhan.

A woman tweeted that she was admitted to and treated at a private hospital and later was told she would be transferred to a larger hospital. On Feb 5, she was taken to a modular hospital, a vast exhibition center with no partitions. However, it was not a hospital. There was no equipment and there were no nurses in sight. Over 1,000 people had to use a single restroom, which was not disinfected and not cleaned. Electric power was out due to short circuitry. People trembled at night under non-functioning electric blankets.

She carried her own gamma globulin for temporarily boosting her immune system, yet she could not find a nurse to do an injection.

A video showed a man talking. He may have been in charge of one of such a spacious, unpartitioned facility. He announced, “This is not a hospital! This is a quarantine station. . . . We don’t have medical appliances . . . Once you get in, you cannot go out!”

1. Excerpt in Chinese: Continue reading →

The novel coronavirus has been spreading outside Hubei Province. By Feb 4, 2020, a total of 27 cities across China had been placed under tight control. Among them, 17 cities are in Hubei province.

Five cities, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Zhengzhou, and Harbin are the capital cities of the respective Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Henan, and Heilongjiang Provinces. Other major cities including Ningbo in Zhejing Province and Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province have taken similar measures.

There are also reports that Shanghai has locked down many residential communities. Only people inside the community can enter or leave the community. Anyone outside cannot enter without official authorization.  Ms. Rose Luqiu, former executive news editor of Phoenix TV, noted this on her tweet.

In a smaller city, Zhumadian in Henan Province (population 7.2 million), every five days a family will be allowed to send one person to go out to buy daily necessities. Similar measure has been imposed in other cities. Continue reading →

On Feb 5 and Feb 6, 2020, Taiwan’s leading news portal ETtoday reported that Liaoning and Jiangxi provinces both announced lockdowns of residential communities across the entire province.

Each of the two provinces has a population of well over 40 million.

Over 36 Chinese cities have imposed restrictions on residents, preventing them from leaving home. The lockdown of a residential community means that anyone without official authorization is not allowed to enter the neighborhood. Jiangxi province’s measure has a further restriction that only one person in each family is allowed to go out shopping every other day. Continue reading →