On the first anniversary of Wuhan’s closure, the departure of Zhou Xianwang, the mayor of Wuhan who led the city through the closure and the fight against the Epidemic, has caused speculation. Who are the people remembered today in a city that has experienced 76 days of bloodshed? And who is silently silenced and disappeared?
On Jan. 22, a day before the first anniversary of Wuhan’s closure, Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang, who had said he would be responsible for the decision to close the city, resigned from his post.
In a brief announcement, Chinese officials wrote that “Zhou Xianwang has submitted a request to the Standing Committee of the Municipal People’s Congress to resign from his post due to work needs,” and that the Wuhan People’s Congress meeting accepted his resignation on the 22nd. Cheng Yongwen, director of the Hubei Development and Reform Commission, became deputy mayor, and acting mayor of Wuhan, while Zhou Xianwang became a member of the Hubei CPPCC party group.
Hide the epidemic? Zhou Xianwang had hinted: the central government is not allowed to disclose
Wuhan first saw its first confirmed case on Dec. 8, 2019. In early January, Wuhan police summoned eight people for spreading rumors about the epidemic on the Internet, including Dr. Li Wenliang, who eventually passed away from the epidemic. 2020 From January 12 to 18, the two sessions of the Hubei Provincial Assembly were held, and the local government still claimed that the epidemic was “preventable and controllable” and that there were no new cases.
On January 18, Wuhan’s Baibuting community held its usual “Wanjia Banquet”, which was attended by at least 40,000 families and was seen as the cause of a large cluster of infections early in the outbreak.
On Jan. 23, the Wuhan municipal government declared the city closed.
Zhou Xianwang, then the mayor of Wuhan, was a key figure in the early stages of the outbreak. In the midst of anxiety among the city’s residents and dissatisfaction with the government for withholding information, Zhou Xianwang went on a live CCTV program on Jan. 26 and told the truth: It wasn’t that the epidemic was hidden, but that the central government did not authorize it.
“This disclosure is not timely, which we should understand, because it is an infectious disease, infectious diseases have infectious disease prevention and control law, it must be disclosed according to law, as a local government, I get this information, after authorization, I can disclose, so this point at the Time many people do not understand.”
Zhou Xianwang said that after the State Council executive meeting held on January 20, set the tone of Wuhan pneumonia as a class B infectious disease, and the management of class A infectious diseases, the local government was authorized to be more “proactive” in implementing various measures.
At the time, Zhou Xianwang’s candor garnered him a lot of support on Chinese social media. With the death of Dr. Li Wenliang on February 7, civil discontent with the central government rose to a high point.
“No stories to tell “before the city was closed
“The resignation of Zhou Xianwang is a very important matter. A year ago, Zhou Xianwang was a very prominent figure. He said publicly on CCTV that as mayor of Wuhan, he had no right to issue a message, and that the decision was made by the top of the Communist Party. This is a very rare (practice) in Chinese officialdom, where he clearly defines the responsibility and says so.” Chen Kuaid, executive chairman of the Princeton China Society, told the station that Zhou Xianwang’s “risky” approach also “made it more difficult for the central government to deal with him.”
On Feb. 13 of last year, the secretary of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee and the secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee both stepped down. Zhou Xianwang not only remained in the position of mayor, but also closely accompanied Li Keqiang who visited Wuhan.
Chen Kui De analyzed that Zhou Xianwang has not been “changed” or “stepped down” in the past year, reflecting the central government’s understanding that Zhou’s dismissal may cause more public pressure; on the other hand, it also shows that there are differences within the Communist Party on how to deal with Zhou Xianwang. He predicted that, with the current epidemic and public opinion situation under control, the Communist Party is allowing Zhou Xianwang to take a backseat, also to downplay the outside world’s discussion and blame for the epidemic at the beginning.
“Zhou Xianwang is the person who knows the most about the initial decisions of the epidemic, and what the Chinese government is trying to do now is to change the narrative of Wuhan after the city was sealed. Erase all of the key figures before the sealing of the city, and the key people who are pursuing what happened before the sealing, such as Ai Fen and Zhang Zhan.” Chen Kuide said.
A year after Wuhan’s closure
On Jan. 22, an officially funded and produced Chinese documentary film, “Wuhan Day and Night,” was released, one of the few official events commemorating the city’s closure. The story begins precisely on January 23 of last year, with the story of the medical staff who saved the lives of the people of Wuhan and the citizens who initiated self-help during the city’s 76-day closure, but cleverly avoids the “things” that officials did not want to mention before and after the closure – the admonished doctors, silenced citizens, disappeared journalists, underreported epidemics, besieged writers, dehumanized citizens and diagnosed patients.
A year later, the streets of Wuhan return to their usual playfulness and the big red lantern dragons ready for the Lunar New Year are hung up again. And the new coronavirus has spread around the world, causing more than 98 million infections and 2.1 million deaths.
“In fact, if it wasn’t for the death of Family members or illnesses, the year changed little in the lives of most residents. Probably all just remember that year closed the city for two months, a few dozen days did not go out. Baibuting, which was the hardest hit area at the time, is now full of elderly people exercising in the park every morning, as if nothing has happened.” said Mr. Zhang, a resident of Wuhan who lives not far from the Baibuting neighborhood.
Many media outlets have been in Wuhan this week to do first anniversary coverage. Photographer Xiaomai shared his notes with reporters:tourists watching the sunset by the Yangtze River Bridge in Wuhan, the night market on Baocheng Road with its 10,000 jumpers, and elderly people swimming early in the morning on a winter day…… he said, except for the masks, street Life has gone on as usual.
“Wuhan people told me that it is impossible to close the city again.” This interview line, which is the most often heard and most surprised by Xiaomai is the confidence of Wuhan people, “They will say that the country gives confidence.”
Britain’s Independent Television (ITV) also returned to the scene, and in a just-released documentary, a Wuhan doctor with a mosaic on his face confessed that he knew the virus would be passed from person to person as early as December 2019, only to be silenced by the government.
One doctor said, “When we attended a hospital meeting, we were told not to speak out. Provincial leaders told the hospital not to tell the truth.”
Will members of the World health Organization’s expert panel currently investigating the origin of the virus in Wuhan learn the truth, I wonder?
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