Several media in China have voiced subtle differences in tone from the main theme that Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee have voiced. However small these voices are, they show that the party lacks unity.

People’s Daily: A February 10 Twitter message pointed out that People’s Daily mobile APP had a very interesting design on that day: It had a picture of Xi Jinping visiting the Beijing local community for epidemic control, sandwiched between a text that read, “Go to Wuhan” (on the top) with a big banner, “Go to Wuhan” (at the bottom).

Article link: https://twitter.com/LifetimeUSCN/status/1226859830977019905?s=19.

China Global Television Network (CGTN): It reported that “five suns” had appeared in the sky in Inner Mongolia. In traditional Chinese culture, this was a terrible sign for the current leader. It meant that multiple people would start to challenge the leader or even declare themselves as the new “kings.” (Of course, CGTN only called it an optical phenomenon without touching the ancient Chinese interpretation.) Article link: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-02-16/-Five-suns-appear-in-China-s-Inner-Mongolia-O7So2eq9oY/index.html.

Caixin, a Beijing-based media group established in 2010 by Hu Shuli (胡舒立), who was known for his outspoken style: Has had an article on the Internet since January 27, 2020. In the article, the Wuhan Mayor, Zhou Xianwang, said he reported the coronavirus epidemic to Beijing in December 2019 but was not “authorized” to reveal the information to the public until January 20, 2020. Article link: http://china.caixin.com/2020-01-27/101508817.html. Related Chinascope posting: Leadership: Wuhan Mayor Not “Authorized” to Release Epidemic Information to the Public Before.

Caixin: Since February 13, it has kept an article on its website questioning the official Infection count in Wuhan. Article link: http://www.caixin.com/2020-02-13/101515147.html. Related Chinascope posting: Infection Count: Caixin Questioned Wuhan Infection Number on February 13.

Beijing News, a Beijing-based newspaper: Has kept an article on its website since January 27, 2020. It is similar to Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang’s story that he was not “authorized” to reveal the information to the public before January 20, 2020. Article link: http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2020/01/27/680293.html. Related Chinascope posting: Leadership: Wuhan Mayor Not “Authorized” to Release Epidemic Information to the Public Before.

Red Song Club, a leftist (pro-communist ideology) website: Has kept an article since February 6, 2020, questioning whether the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory might have leaked the coronavirus to the public. Article link: http://m.szhgh.com/show.php?classid=50&id=222546.

Xilu Website, called itself China’s military portal: For many days, it kept the same article on-line challenging the Wuhan lab for leaking the virus but finally took it out. Old link: http://www.xilu.com/20200207/1000010001120545.html.

The shortage of medical supplies has created tension between local governments as everyone works on control and prevention of the novel coronavirus. Several places have been reported for confiscating other locality’s medical supplies.

• In early February, Dali City, Yunnan Province, confiscated hundreds of boxes of face masks belonging to several cities, including Huangshi City, Hubei Province, Chongqing City, Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, and Cixi City, Zhejiang Province.
• After customs in Shengyang City, Liaoning Province detained 100,000 face masks of Qingdao City, Shandong Province, Qingdao drafted an official notice that “following the reciprocal principle,” their customs will detain the face masks that Shenyang bought from Korea.
• Mengzi City, Yunnan Province detained over 100,000 face masks that Liucheng County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region had purchased.

The most recent case was that the Shanghai Armed Police went to Rizhao City, Shandong Province to escort 5,000 protective suits back to Shanghai. They drove over a thousand kilometer (over 600 miles) in 28 hours and successfully brought the suits back to Shanghai. Continue reading →

Many people, including medical experts, have been questioning the origin of the coronavirus. Many Chinese individually questioned whether it was created by the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, China’s first Biocontainment Level 4 (BL4) lab (Chinese call it a P4 lab) in Wuhan.

There have been widespread discussions among Chinese individuals on the Internet about a few “theories” to support this suspicion, though officially the media have remained silent:

1. The virus was leaked to the public by selling experimental animals with the coronavirus.
2. Huang Yanling (黄燕玲), a female graduate student who studied at the P4 lab in 2012, was the first coronavirus patient (Patient “No. Zero”).
3. No one from the P4 lab has caught the coronavirus, so they may know a specific way to protect themselves.

On February 15, the government declared theory #2 to be a “rumor.” The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, issued a statement that Huang Yanling didn’t work at Wuhan P4 lab after her graduation.

Beijing News interviewed Shi Zhengli, the lead technician at the P4 lab and Chen Quanjiao, a researcher at the lab. Both were not sure if the lab has someone called Huang Yanling, but Shi Zhengli flatly rejected the idea that patient “No. Zero” was from the lab. “How could that be? It is definitely fake news. I can guarantee that including graduate students, no one in our institute has been infected. Our institute has zero infections.”

Caixin also gave a detailed report on patient “No. Zero.” In addition to mentioning that it was a rumor, it explained the significance of identifying patient “No. Zero” and mentioned that the first reported infection case of coronavirus was on December 1, 2019 and the patient didn’t go to the seafood market, which China blamed as the starting point of the virus.

Related posting on Chinascope:

• Virus Origin: Genome Analysis of the New Wuhan Coronavirus Found Viral Sequences Suspicious of Laboratory Engineering

Continue reading →