Open letters ‘Chinese academy’s strongest challenge’ to Xi

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, told Times Higher Education that, in terms of academics voicing criticism, “the tightening of control under Xi has changed things”. No, it hasn't. Spreading nonsense, especially dangerous nonsense like Li Wenliang's, is a crime in China and has always been. Dr. Li, far from being a whistleblower, was a rumor-monger. Here's what really happened: 1. Li was a junior Ophthalmologist at a Wuhan hospital. 2. Li overheard an unfounded rumor that SARS had broken out again. 3. Li did not inform the CDC who, unbeknownst to him, were already investigating it. 4. Instead, Li used social media to repeat the rumor to family and friends and they told their friends…. 5. Li was wrong professionally: it was not SARS, as he asserted in his tweets. 6. Li was wrong legally: spreading rumors Publicly that are likely to cause panic is illegal. 7. Li was not convicted of anything. After an hour of questioning the police concluded that he had merely acted irresponsibly and he was allowed to return to work. 8. The US, which has been waging bio warfare on China since 1951, unleashed its media—the same media that lied about WMD. 9. NONE of the media investigated the rumors. 10. NONE of our media contacted the CDC. 11. NONE of our media accurately reported Li’s encounter with the police. 12. NONE of our media told the public that, worldwide, the outbreak will kill fewer people than die of ‘flu (a Coronavirus) in one day: 2,000 elderly Chinese male smokers who live around Wuhan. By contrast, our own, home-grown H1N1 Coronavirus killed 300,000 people in 2009-2010 and our media hardly turned a hair.