The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) amended the Law on Medical Practitioners, also claiming to have absorbed the experience of the prevention and control of the Wuhan pneumonia (CCP virus) Epidemic, requiring physicians to report sudden unexplained illnesses in a timely manner, but in two cases, physicians must obey the authorities’ dispatch.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing is considering amendments to the Law on Medical Practitioners. In addition to the proposed name change to the Law on Medical Practitioners, it is also claimed that the experience of the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic has been taken into account, requiring medical practitioners to report sudden unexplained illnesses in a timely manner, but under two circumstances, medical practitioners must obey the authorities. The amendments were criticized by public opinion, which questioned the authorities for not really learning the lessons of the epidemic and for not wanting a second Li Wenliang to appear in China.
In the early days of the Wuhan pneumonia outbreak in China, several people were accused of fabricating rumors, including Wuhan ophthalmologist Li Wenliang. At the Time, he said in a WeChat group that multiple cases of SARS had been diagnosed in the South China seafood market and warned people to take precautions, after which Li was accused of making false statements and seriously disrupting social order online. It was only after Li Wenliang died of pneumonia in Wuhan that the State Supervisory Commission issued an investigation report to vindicate the “whistle blower”.
The proposed revision of the Physicians Law claims to have incorporated the experience and practices of the New Crown Pneumonia epidemic, and stipulates that physicians should report infectious diseases, unexplained illnesses and unusual health events when they discover them. However, the Act also states that physicians shall be subject to the dispatch of the competent health authorities in case of emergency and national defense mobilization needs.
As to what constitutes “emergency” and “national defense mobilization needs”, the National People’s Congress will ultimately have the final say.
The definition of emergency is entirely up to the government
Xia Ming, a professor of political science at the City University of New York, believes the provisions are contradictory.
Xia Ming: “The national defense security aspect is of course the national military security and war and so on, because anything in China, including virus research, whether it is related to national defense and military, and geopolitical military, which is a problem in itself, a lot of things involved in the military on all belong to military secrecy. People can’t pursue it, or even blow the whistle. Emergency is a very broad concept. What it means to be in an emergency situation is entirely up to the party-state to interpret arbitrarily.”
He questioned the role and purpose of having the Physicians Act.
Xia Ming: “Doing it for the world to see, ‘We take it seriously and have detailed legislation.’ But the problem is that much of the rule of law in China is constitutional, and you are not allowed to use it, as Jiang Yu, a former spokesperson for the Communist Party’s Foreign Ministry, said very clearly, ‘You can’t use the law as a shield.'”
As for what constitutes “emergency” and “national defense mobilization needs,” Xia Ming fears that the NPC will ultimately have the final say.
Xia Ming: “In actual use, it can be constantly extended or arbitrarily interpreted with provisos (exceptions listed in the law), so-called emergency situations, or national defense mobilization situations, because in China, after all, to interpret a law, the NPC can interpret or interpret the law, the case of Hong Kong is an example. The fundamental point is that there is no impartial interpretation, that is, for everyone to visit, the actual application of arbitrariness will be very strong.”
He likened “physicians should obey the authorities” to “fascism.
Li Wenliang is considered by many Chinese to be a hero of epidemic prevention. In this photo, people mourn Dr. Li Wenliang, who died after contracting the new coronavirus, in Hong Kong on Feb. 7, 2020.
Xia Ming: “It puts epidemic prevention in a bit of paramilitary mobilization and control. Many doctors are not allowed to make decisions autonomously or to make scientific arguments. If it carries out this kind of militarized management for doctors, it will also carry out this kind of highly militarized management for patients. Forced internment, or the use of public security city police to block their doors.”
Zhang Hai: Authorities don’t want to see a second Li Wenliang
Li Wenliang is considered by many Chinese to be an epidemic hero, but Zhang Hai, a Wuhan native whose Family died of pneumonia in Wuhan, believes the authorities simply do not want to see a second Li Wenliang emerge.
Zhang Hai: “It does not want to see another Li Wenliang or Ai Fen, because our country is very serious about maintaining stability. Many things it wants to master, but also afraid of control can not, the psychology is particularly contradictory, both to maintain the face of the government, but also afraid of losing control.”
Public opinion has been questioning the slow response to the outbreak by the main leadership teams in Wuhan and Hubei province. One of the mayors, Zhou Xianwang, has revealed that as a local government, the market, even if it gets information about the epidemic, to have to be authorized to disclose it according to the law.
Zhang Hai: “The key still depends on whether the person has the courage. To use an analogy, if the new crown occurred in Shenzhen, I believe that absolutely no serious consequences of the outbreak like Wuhan, the real local leaders as a local outbreak of the new crown of this virus, then he can decide to take action.”
Current affairs commentator Samp, on the other hand, argued that the key to the spread of the pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan was not whether doctors had reported it instantly, but whether their superiors were medical personnel or the party committee.
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