Wuhan's whistleblower
Li had raised the alarm about the virus that ultimately took his life. In December, he posted in his medical school alumni group on the Chinese messaging app WeChat that seven patients from a local seafood market had been diagnosed with a SARS-like illness and were quarantined in his hospital in Wuhan. Soon after he posted the message, Li was accused of rumor-mongering by the Wuhan police. He was one of several medics targeted by police for trying to blow the whistle on the deadly virus in the early weeks of the outbreak, which has sickened more than 28,000 people and killed more than 560. He later contracted the virus himself. Li was hospitalized on January 12 and tested positive for the coronavirus on February 1.Fury on social media
China's social media channels were awash with anger following news of Li's death. The topics "Wuhan government owes Dr. Li Wenliang an apology," and "We want freedom of speech," soon began to trend on China's Twitter-like platform, Weibo. Each gained tens of thousands of views before disappearing from the heavily censored platform. Another topic, called "I want freedom of speech," had drawn 1.8 million views as of 5 a.m. Friday morning local time (4 p.m. ET Thursday). Top comments under the Wuhan Central Hospital's statement about Li's death included "I've learned two words: political rescue & performative rescue" and "Countless young people will mature overnight after today: the world is not as beautiful as we imagined. Are you angry? If any of us here is fortunate enough to speak up for the public in the future, please make sure you remember tonight's anger." Several comments also marked the timing of the announcement. "I knew you would post this in the middle of the night," wrote one Weibo user. "You think we've all gone to sleep? No. We haven't," said another.Confusion over his condition
The Global Times first announced Li had died in a tweet at around 10:40 p.m. local time Thursday, linking to a report that cited friends and doctors at Wuhan Central Hospital. It deleted the post several hours later. Other Chinese media outlets also deleted their reports of his death, without explanation. The World Health Organization released a message of condolence following the initial reports that Li was dead but later updated their statement to say they did not have any information about the doctor's status. Wuhan Central Hospital issued a new statement confirming his death later that day.DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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