On this 2020 photo, flower bouquets sit outside of the Houhu Branch of Wuhan Central Hospital in honor of late ophthalmologist Li Wenliang. Li, a health care provider who was punished after raising the alarm in regards to the latest coronavirus, died on Feb. 7, 2020 after being infected by the pathogen.
STR | AFP | Getty Images
As China moves away from its strict “zero-Covid” controls, there was a resurgence of online tributes to Li Wenliang, a whistleblower doctor who became an emblem of public dissatisfaction with the ruling Communist Party’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Li, who worked at a hospital within the Chinese city of Wuhan, was amongst eight doctors reprimanded by local police in early 2020 for “spreading rumors” after they warned colleagues a couple of latest SARS-like disease that had recently emerged in the town. Weeks later, because the coronavirus shut down cities in China and started spreading around the globe, Li died from the disease after contracting it at work. He was 33.
Li’s death set off an internet outpouring of grief and anger that isn’t seen in China, where there may be little tolerance for dissent. Though Li was later officially exonerated and even held up as a national hero, criticism of the federal government in connection along with his silencing and death has continued to be censored.
This week, Chinese officials announced they were abandoning key pillars of President Xi Jinping’s “zero-Covid” strategy, including broad lockdowns, mass testing and quarantine in centralized government facilities. Many social media users rushed to inform Li, flooding his profile on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, with expressions of gratitude, celebration and grief.
“It has been three years, Dr. Li, it’s over,” read a typical comment.
“Dr. Li, previously three years, I often consider you at night. I burst into tears each time,” one other commenter wrote from Sichuan province.
The newest easing of restrictions comes after mass protests across China against the “zero-Covid” controls, with some demonstrators calling for Xi to step down. While the measures have minimized deaths — 5,235 in China, compared with greater than one million in america — they’ve exhausted the general public as lagging vaccinations prevented them from transitioning to “living with the virus” as so many other countries have done.
“The epidemic is over, and so is my youth,” a commenter from the Inner Mongolia region said on Li’s page.
Others expressed anxiety in regards to the explosion in cases that is probably going coming in a population of 1.4 billion that has barely been exposed to the virus.
“Three years later, friends around me are testing positive one after one other, and the epidemic has entered a latest stage,” read one comment from Beijing.
Some Weibo users vowed to make Li proud as case numbers rise.
“I hope that the living comrades won’t allow you to down, and the virus will likely be gone soon,” a commenter from Jiangsu province said. “Thanks, we’re grateful to have had you and you will all the time be remembered.”
