Wuhan Lockdown:
Wuhan, Hubei, China, was the first city to experience the global COVID-19 pandemic. It was closed for more than 100 days from January to April 2000, and countless tragic stories that the outside world could not imagine happened. Four years have passed. “Wuhan Lockdown”, a public welfare documentary that details the sentiments of Wuhan citizens and the censorship of official comments during the lockdown, held its world premiere on December 30. The organizers said that they chose to premiere today to commemorate the late Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang, who blew the whistle online four years ago on December 30. They hope to use this documentary to warn the world not to forget the suffering of Li Wenliang and the people of Wuhan. .
The documentary “Wuhan Lockdown” starts at the end of 2019, when Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, issued the first epidemic information report about the South China Seafood Market. As the new crown epidemic raged in the local area, the authorities suddenly decided to close the city on January 23 of the following year. The entire city was put under lockdown to cope with the situation, and the tragedy unfolded during these 101 days until the lockdown was officially lifted on April 8.
Victims of Wuhan lockdown who lost loved ones accuse the CCP of hiding the epidemic
The most heartbreaking stories are those about the loss of loved ones.
Yang Min, a victim who was originally from Wuhan and has now moved to the Netherlands, accused the CCP in the documentary of maliciously concealing the epidemic, resulting in innocent casualties among Wuhan citizens. She said that her 24-year-old daughter was sick and hospitalized at the time and was taken care of by her. The hospital told them that pneumonia was just a rumor and did not provide any protection. It was not until she was infected and recovered that she learned that her daughter had actually contracted the epidemic. Death.
Yang Min said in “Wuhan Lockdown” documentary: “During this period, my child kept sending me WeChat messages, saying that no one was taking care of her (in the ward), and she kept shouting that it hurt. (When I recovered, I called to ask how my child was doing, but the doctor said that he was not dead.”
Another Wuhan victim, Zhang Hai, recalled that his father, Zhang Lifa, was hospitalized for surgery for a broken leg in mid-January 2020. Even the medical staff did not wear masks at that time. As a result, his father’s surgery was successful, but he died of the epidemic and committed suicide. He tried to seek justice for his father, but his Weibo account was banned five times, and even the police monitored and harassed him.
According to the “Wuhan Lockdown” documentary, both the personal experiences of the interviewees and the subsequent survey data show that if the Chinese Communist Party officials had not deliberately concealed and suppressed the epidemic in the early stages, the epidemic control in China and even the world might have developed differently.
Li Wenliang was suppressed for “whistleblowing” Wang Dan: Highlighting the value of freedom of speech
The film focuses specifically on Dr. Li Wenliang, the “whistleblower,” who was the first to expose the epidemic. After seeing a patient’s test report showing the characteristics of the SARS coronavirus, he kindly reminded his fellow clinicians in the WeChat group to take precautions. Unexpectedly, the local police issued a warning and reprimand for “posting untrue remarks on the Internet.” After that, Li Wenliang continued to participate in the anti-epidemic medical work on the front lines until he died of the epidemic on February 7 of the following year.
Wang Dan, director of the “Dialogue China” think tank in Taipei, is the planner of the “Wuhan Lockdown” documentary. In an interview with the media at the premiere, he said that the original intention of planning the “Wuhan Lockdown” documentary was to preserve historical evidence. And give the victims the respect they deserve, because for more than three years, the Chinese Communist authorities have tried every means to erase the historical memory of Wuhan’s lockdown and highlight the importance of freedom of speech.
Wang Dan said: “If there had not been the suppression of freedom of speech like Li Wenliang’s, no one, including Taiwan, would have suffered so much or such a big loss (from the epidemic), so it shows how important freedom of speech is.”
Hundreds of “Literary Prisons” were silenced during Wuhan’s lockdown
“Wuhan Lockdown” The documentary also quoted a survey conducted by the X social platform (formerly Twitter) promoter, “Chinese Literary Inquisition Incident Inventory,” which showed that during the Wuhan lockdown, there were as many as 10,000 “literal inquisition” cases that were well-documented in official notifications or media reports alone. 638. At the same time, China’s media censorship agencies issued at least 131 propaganda directives and deleted 44 media reports and 229 self-published articles.
The tipster was interviewed anonymously in the documentary and pointed out that these figures represent that Chinese officials are frightened by the rapidly spreading fear among the people, so they will do whatever it takes to prevent the truth from being revealed and expand social panic.
The Chinese official’s method of concealing the truth about Wuhan’s lockdown was also used against the film’s production team and interviewees. Planner Wang Dan pointed out that during the filming process, although the documentary director was in the United States and kept a low profile, his family members in China were still warned. Almost no other members of the filming team were spared and were also warned by Chinese officials. or threatened.
In response to such ruthless official suppression, Yang Min, who lost her beloved daughter, said that it was the authorities’ strict surveillance and crackdowns that prompted her to make up her mind to leave China in the spring of 2023 and move to the Netherlands. She expressed through a pre-recorded video , although it is difficult to live in exile overseas, in comparison, the situation of friends in China is even more difficult.
Yang Min said: “Their passports are subject to long-term border control and cannot come out. Once, a friend asked his passport when border control would be revoked. They (the police) answered that it would probably be in 2032.”
In addition to Taipei, the “Wuhan Lockdown” documentary was simultaneously premiered in Tokyo, Japan, New York and Los Angeles in the United States, The Hague in the Netherlands, Toronto in Canada, and Germany.
Lee Ming-che, a Taiwanese non-governmental organization (NGO) worker who was imprisoned by China for five years for “subversion of state power,” also attended the premiere in Taipei. After watching the movie, he said that the most warning thing about the film is that it is like China In a country with a one-party dictatorship, it is willing to harm the people’s rights and interests for the sake of convenience.
Li Mingzhe told the media: “Its (China’s) laws can be interpreted at will by the rulers. Therefore, I think what watching “Wuhan Lockdown” tells us most is that such a country (China) is different from our ordinary democratic society. It’s a completely different mindset.”
John Hsieh, another Taipei citizen who attended the movie, said that the most significant significance of recalling the Wuhan lockdown four years later is not to forget to learn from history. John Tse told VOA: “In an era or society that has not yet seen the light of day, the most important thing is that the only thing you can do personally is not to forget it, to remember it, and not to be numb.”
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